Earlier trees on Ancestry.com did allow people to download GEDCOMs of the trees. If this were done, the information could be incorporated into anyone's tree. Many "harvesters" did exactly that and never cleaned up the data or even attempted to merge duplicates. I've seen at least one tree which has multiple entries of duplicate families and you wouldn't believe the number of interrelationships one individual could have. I think Ancestry.com is changing this. I know that in recent searches, I have found no way of downloading a public tree from Ancestry.com. Current trees can only be downloaded by the owner. The owner has much more control over the current Ancestry.com trees or AMT's. They can specify whether the tree is to be seen by all subscriber (Public) or only searched (Private). There is also an option to preclude the Private tree from even being searched. Additionally, the user can "invite" select individuals to view or add certain items to the tree by specifying the level of invitee. The choices are Guest - you can view the individuals in the tree and leave comments. The owner has the option to let a "guest" view living individuals or not. The default is NOT. Contributor - can view the individuals, leave comments and Add Stories and photos. Again the owner decides whether the contributor can see living individuals or not. Default is NOT. Editor - can view the individuals, leave comments, Add Stories and photos and Add/Edit people in the tree. By definition the Editor can see living people. All of the options are discussed under the sharing feature on the web site. Just click on the little green circle icon. BJ On 10/13/2011 4:36 AM, Nivard Ovington wrote: > The ones I know of are on Ancestry and nowhere else, some are very recent and multiply by the week > it seems

I have to concur with what Nivard says. Not only do you have marriages of people to spouses born a 100 years or more earlier than them (have a look at Mary Theresa Wherritt daughter of Millard and Mary for instance) , but you have sources attached which do not relate to the fact set out, or even record different information. Particularly noticeable in my area of interest, are English place names which have become associated with places in the US and France. And don't get me started on people who believe the USA is a pre Mayflower and in some instances pre-Columbian creation. There is a danger PMTs are descending to the quality level of the IGI Tony -----Original Message----- From: BJ Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2011 4:05 PM To: ftm-tech@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [FTM-TECH] FTM 2012 People/Family Index Earlier trees on Ancestry.com did allow people to download GEDCOMs of the trees. If this were done, the information could be incorporated into anyone's tree. Many "harvesters" did exactly that and never cleaned up the data or even attempted to merge duplicates. I've seen at least one tree which has multiple entries of duplicate families and you wouldn't believe the number of interrelationships one individual could have. I think Ancestry.com is changing this. I know that in recent searches, I have found no way of downloading a public tree from Ancestry.com. Current trees can only be downloaded by the owner. The owner has much more control over the current Ancestry.com trees or AMT's. They can specify whether the tree is to be seen by all subscriber (Public) or only searched (Private). There is also an option to preclude the Private tree from even being searched. Additionally, the user can "invite" select individuals to view or add certain items to the tree by specifying the level of invitee. The choices are Guest - you can view the individuals in the tree and leave comments. The owner has the option to let a "guest" view living individuals or not. The default is NOT. Contributor - can view the individuals, leave comments and Add Stories and photos. Again the owner decides whether the contributor can see living individuals or not. Default is NOT. Editor - can view the individuals, leave comments, Add Stories and photos and Add/Edit people in the tree. By definition the Editor can see living people. All of the options are discussed under the sharing feature on the web site. Just click on the little green circle icon. BJ On 10/13/2011 4:36 AM, Nivard Ovington wrote: > The ones I know of are on Ancestry and nowhere else, some are very recent > and multiply by the week > it seems ********************************** List information page http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Software/FTM-TECH.html Online Support for Family Tree Maker Version 16 and earlier http://pastftm.custhelp.com/ Version 2008 - 2011 http://ftm.custhelp.com/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to FTM-TECH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message