When you add new members to your family, such as spouses, in-laws, stepparents, etc., these new additions can come with their own separate family trees. Connecting to the tree information for living family members on the FamilySearch Family Tree isn’t difficult—but it does require a little different approach.
Protecting the Privacy of Living Family Members
FamilySearch Family Tree is a shared, public tree. Information about deceased relatives can be seen by anyone who searches for that relative on FamilySearch. To protect privacy, any information about living people on the Family Tree can only be seen by the person who entered it, in his or her private space.
As an example, I entered my husband, children, and parents on my family tree. Nobody else can see the information I entered because they are all living.
Information added to a living relative’s profile will only become public after he or she is marked as deceased. At that time, duplicate profiles may appear and can be merged to group that person’s information into one shared profile.
This means that if my siblings want to see our parents (who are living) on their own tree, they have to enter our parents themselves.
Connecting Trees of Living People
Because of this respect for privacy, connecting to information in the tree about your spouse or other living family members works a little differently than connecting to deceased ancestors in your direct line. The key is adding information about your living relatives until you can connect to the profile for a deceased person.
Read the article “How to Connect to a Family Member’s Tree” for step-by-step instructions on how to connect to the tree information for a living person.
It is said that, “Information added to a living relative’s profile will only become public after he or she is marked as deceased.”
But how can it be marked ‘deceased’ by a DECEASED person? Nobody but the creator of the private page can see it.
Even FSFT instructions do not seem to provide this important piece of information. They say, “All records of living people added within a private space remain attached to that account, even upon the account holder’s death. They are nontransferable.”
This is a worry, as no living person wants their own private page data to be lost when they die. There is possibly a simple answer, which seems to be never provided for patrons. My questions on this, emailed to FSFT, are answered differently by various people there.
If the account owner is a member of the LDS church the ward clerk marks their account as a deceased person upon death. Their profile/ PID is then viewable to the public. If the account owner is not a LDS church member a call can be made to the help desk. Once proof of death is provided the person is marked deceased. Also, once a person reaches 110 years after birth the account is also marked deceased.
Good Question…thinking about this my husband and I share our passwords so we can edit/update each other when that time comes.
Kendall Davie hit the nail on the head. When a FamilySearch patron’s account is marked deceased. IT IS LOCKED FOREVER, including all the persons, memories, sources, etc. found only in their private space. It appears that any information about living persons in that locked private space MAY become available once the living person’s birthdate passes 110 years – a very long time for young people such as grandchildren, children, and some siblings and parents. WE TRULY NEED A BETTER SOLUTION WHERE WE CAN RECORD LIVING PERSONS. I have suggested being able to bequeath or inherit an account, but so far FS has done nothing. Any ideas?