old guy

What happens to a record for a living person that you have added into
Family Search Family Tree - when that person (that you entered) then  passes away?

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The short answer:  Nothing happens automatically.  (UNLESS  you mark the record as deceased).  Or unless someone else marks them as deceased.  But what other people do, on their accounts,  never has any direct automatic impact on the "living record" in your account.

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The long answer:   FamilySearch FamilyTree is a collaborative system - whereby millions of users can access and update a family tree of billions of  interlinked family records. The collaborative feature, however, only applies to those records in the system for deceased persons.   Anyone can enter a record for a living person - but such record is only accessible via the account it was created on.   I cannot see records of living person others created and they cannot see records for living people I have created.  Each living person record only exists in a "private space" that only belongs to the account it was created with.  

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Now if a person (for whom you have entered a living record of into Family Tree) is LDS - then normally when they pass - a short time thereafter, their ward clerk would mark their membership record as deceased.  This is turn will result at some point thereafter - of a record in Familytree being created through a semi-automated process - based on their now marked deceased membership record.    It should be noted  that many people, not just you - may have originally created a living person  record in their "private space" for this once living person.   It is important to understand that the creation of this post-mortem record in family tree - has no direct impact on any "private space" living records that have been created. They will continue to be marked as living and in the private space - until the given accoutn user - marks them as deceased. 

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At the moment that any living person record on any account is marked as deceased - THEN and only then, does such record become "public" and viewable to all other users of FamilySearch. HOWEVER one must be perfectly clear that what another person does on their account - or what is done via the action of an LDS ward clerk marking a record as deceased -  has no direct impact on any living record in YOUR account.   

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Now that being said,   at some point after a person passes.  Someone will be the first person to mark their record as deceased - and at such point that record - will migrate from the "private space" of the account it was created on - to the public open portion of FamilySearch Family Tree.  At this point - all the people who had a living record for this now deceased person - may see a duplicate record.  They may see the public record (now marked as deceased) - and they will continue to be able to see the "private" record that is still marked as "living" in their private space.  In seeing this duplication they can do two things:  1) They can just ignore the duplicity - OR more often they will - 2) set their own version of the record to "deceased"  and they will then have the option to merge the two deceased records into a single record. 

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But in short - it should be noted that never at any time does the action of another user marking a record as deceased for a given person - ever have any direct impact on a record in your "private space" (for that same person)  that you have as still marked as "living" - and even if you mark your record as deceased - you will still need to merge the records so that only one deceased record exists.

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Because of this complicated set of steps for handling records of living persons who become deceased - many FamilySearch users - never really create many "living person" records for anyone beyond just immediate family.  This is also becomes readily apparent as a user is older and realizes that all the records that they have entered for "living persons" will all be effectively lost when they pass on - as there will be no way for anyone else to convert these records to deceased using their account.  Many people realize that adding a lot of records for living persons - may ultimately be a waste of time  - especially if no one will be able to "inherit" or maintain such record upon the death of the user.

 

see also:  

http://yanceyfamilygenealogy.org/when_you_pass_away.htm

any questions or comments - feel free to ask.

djyancey1965@gmail.com