Data Problems in the FamilySearch Family Tree

Apparently, reality has escaped some of the genealogical researchers over the years. This is a rather common slice of the data still to be corrected on the FamilySearch.org Family Tree. Here is an example of one of those bright red Data Problem Icons.

I can only wonder what the person who entered this information was thinking (or not thinking). Chronology was not a strong point among our ancestors who were doing "the work for their kindred dead." As a matter of fact, kindred was not a strong point either.  Here are a couple of entries from this same section of the Family Tree:

Maybe you thought the "living dead" (zombies) were a new phenomena. It looks like some of my ancestors fell into this category. All this would be passably amusing were it not for the fact that this mess represents a huge amount of work cleaning up the lines before I even get to these problems. By the way, I found all this in about three seconds of clicking back on a randomly chosen ancestral line. I didn't have to guess very much to choose which line to search.

In case no one has told you, these red icons mean serious problems. They are not there to add festive color to your section of the Family Tree. Any attempt at "fixing" these problems needs to begin many generations earlier than this particular level. You cannot, under any circumstances, begin to "fix" this mess without carefully working through each of your lines beginning with someone who has been carefully documented and can act as a firm anchor for moving back generation by generation.

The worst part of the mess illustrated above is that unsophisticated users of the program of all ages but primarily youth, are encouraged to "look for the green icons" without qualification. Here is a screenshot of the same section of the Family Trees showing a green temple icon in the middle all this mess.

Fortunately, in this case, clicking on the green icon shows the following message:

The red icons do not even begin to indicate all of the data problems that exist in this section of the Family Tree. Just in case you are not aware of the resources already available that address these issues, here is a link to the page outlining the data problems addressed by the red icons:

Fixing Data Problems in Family Tree

I thought it might be a good idea to copy the list of data problems identified by the red icons. The list below comes from the page linked above. The list is in a table with three columns. The first is the name of the data problem as it appears when you click on the icon. The second is a brief description and the third is a yes or no indicating whether or not the issue can be ignored because of special circumstances. 

Data Problems

• Birth after Father's Death: The birth year of the child is later than the death year of the father. No
• Birth after Mother's Child-Bearing Years: The birth year of the child is after the mother turned 52, which is normally the end of child-bearing years. Yes
• Birth after Mother's Death: The birth year of the child is later than the death year of the mother. No
• Birth before Father Could Have Children: The birth year of the child is before the father was 12 years of age. No
• Birth before Mother Could Have Children" The birth year of the child is before the mother was 12 years of age. Yes
• Born after Married: The birth year of the person is after the marriage year. No
• Born after Spouse's Death: The birth year of the person is after the death year of the spouse. No
• Child Born before Father: The birth year of the child is before the birth year of the father. No
• Child Born before Mother: The birth year of the child is before the birth year of the mother. No
• Child Death before Father: The death year of the child is before the birth year of the father. No
• Child Death before Mother: The death year of the child is before the birth year of the mother. No
• Death before Birth Year :The death year of the person is before the birth year. No
• Death before Spouse Was Born: The death year of the person is before the birth year of the spouse. No
• Death Year before Marriage: The death year of the person is before the marriage year. No
• Died Too Young for Marriage or Children: The person has marriage or children information, but the death year shows the person as 8 years of age or younger. Yes
• Male or Female Is Required: You must specify the sex of this person. No
• Looping Pedigree: This person has a child who is also listed as a parent. See Solving a pedigree looping problem in Family Tree (56206). No
• Married before 12 Years Old: The marriage year for one spouse shows the person was less than 12 years of age at the time of marriage. Yes
• Missing Standardized Event Date or Place: A date or place for an event, such as birth, marriage, or death, is not standardized. See Entering standardized dates and places (71996). To recommend additions to the standardized place list, see Recommending an addition to standardized places (53683). No
• Person over 120 Years Old: The death year is more than 120 years after the birth year. No
• Possible Duplicate Child: Information about 2 or more children is similar:
• Name is the same.
• Birth year is the same or missing.
• Death year is the same or missing.
• Living status is the same. See Finding and merging possible duplicate records in Family Tree (53952). Yes
• Possible Duplicate Spouse: Information about 2 or more spouses is similar:
• Name is the same.
• Birth year is the same or missing.
• Death year is the same or missing.
• Living status is the same. See Finding and merging possible duplicate records in Family Tree (53952). No