Sophia keeps mainfesting her presence

Or you can't keep a good woman down for long.

My cousin Janet wrote me the following e-mail. It is referred to in my previous post.

Laurence,

   I looked in Zopher Gee’s file today and yet another child has appeared, Sophia Tinker along with Salomon Gee.  I sent a feedback to the Support group to try to get them to remove the names and the following is their reply. 

Dear Janet,

Thank you for contacting FamilySearch about children who do not belong in a family.

Since you did not submit the information, you will probably have to provide proof the children do not belong there. If you send it to us we will see what we can do about correcting the situation. Click on the "reply" button at the top of this email.

Best wishes in perfecting your genealogy.

Sincerely,

FamilySearch
Patron and Partner Services 

You may get them to respond better especially with the email you sent to those who put in Salomon Gee’s name.  I wonder where Sophia Tinker came from and it should be so obvious that she does not belong to Zopher Gee.  It is discouraging to try to keep this file cleaned up.   I don’t have the patience you do and the ability to reason it all out with the submitters, so I best leave the negotiating to you. 

 I so appreciate all you do.

   Janet

Dear Janet,

I noticed last night that Sophia was again attached to Zopher. I thought we had cleared this up, but it keeps on showing up like a bad penny.

Here are the links to my previous investigations.  I will contact them again.

The Sophia Tinker Gee Dilemma

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxseXNhbmRlcmdlZXdlYnNpdGV8Z3g6NTEwODdhYzNiN2UwZTU4OA

Solving the Sophia Tinker Dilemma

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxseXNhbmRlcmdlZXdlYnNpdGV8Z3g6NmI2NDBiMTBkOTY1MDk1Zg

I will contact Support.  I had this cleared up at one time and have not gotten a watch notice that any one was fiddling with the record.

After I get the case submitted, I will give you the case number and you can respond to that email and have them look at the case number for proof.  That way we might get prompter action.

Thanks for keeping up on the records.

This is the case that I submitted to NFS Support;

8/1/12 7:50 PM
Closed

Sophia Gee again
I received this e-mail on:

April 9 2012
Dear Ivin Laurence Gee,

RE: Zopher Gee KWVX-4VQ
Esther Beckwith LHF7-QYG

Thank you for contacting FamilySearch Support. Zopher Gee and Esther Beckwith no longer show Sophia as a child. Thank you for bringing this concern to our attention.

Sincerely,

FamilySearch Data Administration
----------------------
(CaseID:2548410)
----------------------

I noticed last night that Sophia was again attached to Zopher. I thought we had cleared this up, but it keeps on showing up like a bad penny.

Here are the links to my previous investigations.
The Sophia Tinker Gee Dilemma
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxseXNhbmRlcmdlZXdlYnNpdGV8Z3g6NTEwODdhYzNiN2UwZTU4OA

Solving the Sophia Tinker Dilemma

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxseXNhbmRlcmdlZXdlYnNpdGV8Z3g6NmI2NDBiMTBkOTY1MDk1Zg

August 2, 2012 I received the following e-mail from Support.

Dear Erinna Marie Schulz

Thank you for contacting FamilySearch regarding L72W-3SG Sophia Tinker not being the daughter of KWVX-4VQ Zopher Gee and LHF7-QYG Esther Beckwith.

Your case has been reviewed and was forwarded to experts in the department for further examination. You will be contacted by them directly when they have completed their investigation. Please be aware that it may take some time before they are able to get back with you. No other action on your part is necessary.

Do not work on this area of your family tree until this problem is resolved.

Sincerely,

FamilySearch

My reply to Janet is as follows:

Dear Janet,

Now I am Erinna Marie Schulz.  Boy are these people mixed up.

I later in the day received the following e-mail. (Notice that they now have my correct name.)

Dear Ivin Laurence Gee,

RE:  Zopher Gee PID # KWVX-4VQ
        Esther Beckwith PID # LZ2H-WP7

Thank you for contacting FamilySearch Data Administration.  Zopher Gee and Esther Beckwith no longer show with Sophia Tinker as an incorrect daughter in their family on new FamilySearch.  Thank you for bringing this concern to our attention.

Sincerely,

FamilySearch Data Administration
----------------------
(CaseID:2705821)
----------------------

I sent Janet the following e-mail

Dear Janet,

It looks like we were successful again.  I hope this will put this to rest for good. On NFS Esther is listed as having two spouses, Zopher and unknown, but when you click on resolve duplicate spouses, it brings up the message there are no duplicate spouses.  This may just be a fluke in the program.

Thanks for keeping me informed. Cooperation is really necessary in this work.

 Who knows how long this will remain in this condition?  Stay tuned.

Family Search Watch

Each week I get an e-mail from Family Search on any activity on the records that I have put a watch on.  I have placed a watch on some of the records that I have been working on. In the past I have found that very helpful, because some patrons combine records that should not be combined or enter changes that may or may not be correct.  I do not know why I feel I need to be the guardian of the records, but I guess that I have a desire that everything should be correct even if I am wrong.

This week I got another e-mail.  Usually it is 4 or 5 changes, but this week there were 53 changes.  The majority were changes by Family Search with minor changes such as correcting names and spellings and places of birth or death.  It was somewhat time consuming to go through all 53 records, but it was worth it because I found the following records that need attention.  I even found two individuals who need ordinance work.  I made a list, so that if my computer crashes I will have the information on a website, or as the present terminology would have it, on the Cloud.( A fancy term for web based backup.)

NFS Cleanup needed.

Abigail Hill Person identifier: LHLM-PJB her many husbands

Sophia Mack Person identifier: LHZX-ZLY where does this information come from?

Ebenezar Mack Person identifier: LZV8-YBJ multiple spouses and duplicate parents.

John Dodds Telford Person identifier: KWJX-YCR two sets of parents.  The one set is incorrect.

Sarah Maria Sayles Person identifier: KWJP-HQJ 7 sets of parents 3 extra spouses.

Find Grave marker for Graham Coltrin Person identifier: KWJP-HCC supposedly buried in the Centerville Cemetery.  His name was on On Find a Grave, but no photo of the headstone. Needs research

William Jasper Kerr Person identifier: KWJP-CSM has three wives, one unknown with a child John Campbell Kerr.  Needs research.

Solomon Gee Jr. Person identifier: LZPP-GVP has two spouses.  Look and see if the spouses need to be combined.

August Bernard LCRZ-8TW and wife Gertrude LCRZ-DSD need temple ordinances done and daughter Alice LCRJ-THR needs to be sealed, but she only died recently.

Sara Gee (Sarah) Person identifier: 2736-R71 has two sets of parents.  Solomon Gee and both his wives.  This needs to be corrected.

Susannah Moody Person identifier: LHZ8-FJ5 has two sets of parents.  This needs research and correction.

Betty Catherine Bruce Person identifier: 2MGH-H5K needs a definite date of death and place of death. I will have to look in my database.

William Gee Person identifier: LZJG-NS1 has an extra spouse that doesn’t belong.  I have written the person that placed that record, but he has so far not taken action.

Elam Luddington Person identifier: K24C-FH6 has three sets of parents. This needs research.

Edward Gee Person identifier: LC1Y-J1N has two children that need ordinances.

Martha Bingham Person identifier: LZD7-W9P needs to be combined with Mrs Solomon Gee Jr. MQRC-26F Her birth date is listed as 1694.

Deborah Gee Person identifier: KNSS-KG3 has one record with gender unknown.

This will take some time to do.  As I complete each item on the list, it will appear in my next watch e-mail entitled “Weekly FamilySearch changes for things you are watching” with me as the contributor.

 

Correspondence with NFS

Detailed below is the correspondence that I have had with Support at New Family Search.  I have been trying to correct the records on the Gee line.  Here is what has happened this past week.

April 26

Dear Ivin Laurence Gee,

Thank you for contacting FamilySearch regarding the confusion in the family of William Gee (1739-1817)LZJG-NS1 and Abigail Mack (1740-1838) LZJ7-32S. We have separated, combined and unlinked so that the only remaining problem is that Sarah Gee (1765-) LZLN-218 is incorrectly linked as a spouse of her sister, Abigal's, Husband - John Lewis (1751-1795) LZJZ-6L7. we are forwarding this to another group to correct. You should hear directly from them if they can make the correction.
With regard to the incorrect gender on Salmon Tinker, we suggest you create another case with that request and provide some proof of the correct gender so that the incorrect gender record can be removed.
Please do not respond to this email as it will confuse the request for unlinking of the incorrect spousal relationship.

Sincerely,

FamilySearch
Patron and Partner Services

Dear Bother Gee,

Thank you for contacting FamilySearch regarding the combined records of Elias Gee LZ25-BD4 showing incorrect parents George Washington Gee II KWZG-Z41 and unknown spouse.

We have verified the information that you sent us for the record of Elias Gee LH27-8V9. Since you are in contact with the contributor of the relationship between Elias Gee LZ25-B8G and George Washington Gee II KWZG-Z41, we ask that you relay this information to the contributor to have this incorrect relationship deleted. You do not want to delete the individuals, just the relationship.

To delete the relationship for this record, follow these steps:

1. Go to the record of George Washington Gee II KWZG-Z41
2. From the Family Pedigree with Details view, click on Spouses and Children
3. Make sure that the Unknown Spouse with the child Elias Gee is showing on the screen.
4. Click on View relationship details under the Children Options
5. A box will pop up with Elias as child and George as the father, click on Edit next to Biological on the Right hand side
6. Another box will pop up with the option to edit the relationship or under the contributor name, to delete/ add a source/ add a note. This relationship needs to be deleted.

That should remove the relationship and change the record for George Washington Gee back to only having 2 spouses. Once that is completed, we will be able to reevaluate this case, and work to remove the incorrect parents from the record of Elias Gee MZ5J-ZK9.

We have also attached a document that gives more information on how to delete an individual from a relationship. We found this document by using the search terms Delete Relationship.

You can access this document by clicking on the blue link below. If you have not visited the Help Center recently, we would encourage you to do so. A link to the Help Center can be located at the bottom of every page in new FamilySearch.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us. You can reply to this email or you may also call us at 1-866-406-1830 (available 24 hours a day 7 days a week), please remember to include your case number 2578909 for reference.

We wish you success as you continue to use the features in new FamilySearch.

Sincerely,

FamilySearch
Patron and Partner Services

Dear Ivin Gee,

Thank you for contacting FamilySearch regarding George Washington Schellenger and George Washington Gee.

The link you send us did not work and when we copied and pasted it in the browser we got a message that that address was "invalid".

As we stiil would like to have a look at this for you we would appriciate it if you could attached the PDF file to the e-mail as you respond to this one.

We are looking forward to receiving this information so we can help you resolve this issue.

Sincerely

FamilySearch
Patron and Partner Services

Here is the link to the document. 

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxseXNhbmRlcmdlZXdlYnNpdGV8Z3g6NWVjYzhmMjI1OWQ5MjA2ZA&pli=1

Dear Ivin Laurence Gee:


Thank you for contacting FamilySearch Support.

Sarah Gee (1765-) LZLN-218  is no longer linked as a spouse of her sister, Abigail Gee's, Husband  -  John Lewis.

We have removed the record of a female named Salmon Tinker.

We appreciate your interest and accuracy in the sacred work.


Sincerely,

FamilySearch Data Administration

----------------------
(CaseID:2574942)
----------------------

Dear Ivin Laurence Gee,

RE:  Mary Jane Smith PID # KWVQ-DBL

Thank you for contacting FamilySearch Data Administration.  Mary Jane Smith no longer shows with William Smith as an incorrect spouse on new FamilySearch.  Thank you for bringing this concern to our attention.

RE:  Mary Jane Smith PID # KWVQ-DBL
        George Washington Schellenger PID # LC8M-SHB

Thank you for contacting FamilySearch Data Administration.  We appreciate your diligence in maintaining accurate family history records.  Although, the Sealing to Spouse Ordinance for Mary Jane Smith to George Washington Schellenger may not be correct according to your records, the ordinance itself is considered valid.  To alert the submitter of the incorrect relationship, please begin a discussion on this record.  This way you may communicate with  the patron who completed the ordinance that the relationship is incorrect and prompt them to request the ordinance be removed.  Because temple ordinances have been completed, the request for removal of incorrect ordinances must come from the submitter.
Sincerely,

FamilySearch Data Administration

----------------------
(CaseID:2579788)
----------------------

My response:

Thank you for removing William Smith as a spouse of Mary Jane Smith Gee.    I am well aware that the sealing of those individuals cannot be canceled.  It is unfortunate that errors creep in and ordinance work is done in error.  I have posted on my blog the following quote, “To err is human, to correct in New Family Search, divine.”

Unfortunately those who submit records, combine records, separate records, add data or change data do not always add complete contact information, or only an e-mail address and do not respond. 

I think I have adequately documented in my previous attachment that George Washington Gee II Person identifier: KWZG-Z41 is not the son of Mary Jane Smith Gee Person identifier: KWVQ-DBL and Geroge Washington Schellenger Person identifier: LC8M-SHB. He (George II) was sealed to George Washington Gee I Person identifier: KWVQ-DBG and Mary Jane Smith Gee Person identifier: KWVQ-DBL on 9 May 1894 in the Salt Lake Temple in person.  I will personally look at the record next week in the special collections to affirm that fact.

I have sent an e-mail to Stephen Erekson in order that we may collaborate on this issue. The first e-mail was not returned nor answered. Unfortunately the other two contributors do not have any contact information.

There are 64 combined records for George Washington Gee II, three of which have the name George Washington Schellenger.  I can correct this record by separating out these records. All three of these records M7RQ-LK1  MKMX-L6Q  9XSC-QSW have George Washington Schellenger and Mary Jane Smith listed as parents. This appears to be a loop. 

Stephen Erekson is only the contributor of one of these records the others have no contact information.

The following comments are found in discussions on George Washington Shellengeers record;

Relationship to child: George Washington GEE II Note: George W. Gee II is born before George W. Schellinger

1 year agobyJanice Peterson

Marriage: Mary Jane Smith 5 February 1837 <Stockholm, S-Lwrn, NY> Note: the child is born before parent George W. Schellenger. Also George Washington Gee II's father is George Washington Gee I. According to my records on this date she was married to George Washington Gee I. Schellenger is Mary Jane's grandmother's maiden name.Less

1 year agobyJanice Peterson

Relationship to spouse: Mary Jane Smith Note: the child is born before George W. Schellenger. Also George Washington Gee II's father is George Washington Gee I.

1 year agobyJanice Peterson

George Washington Schellenger has an unknown spouse with children attached.  All with the surname of Schellenger.

It appears to me that someone picked up Mary Jane Smith and attached her to George Washington Schellenger by mistake.  Since this is not my error I do not wish to find the correct spouse for George Washington Schellenger.  I have enough work to do trying to correct the errors on the Gee line, but would help anyone to find the correct individual. 

April 25, 2012

Dear Ivin Laurence Gee,

RE:  Deborah Huntley PID # LZVZ-PTP

Thank you for contacting FamilySearch Data Administration.  Deborah Huntley no longer shows with Ebenezer Mack as an incorrect spouse on new FamilySearch.  Thank you for bringing this concern to our attention.

Sincerely,

FamilySearch Data Administration


----------------------
(CaseID:2562541)
----------------------

Sophia Tinker/Gee Conclusion

I received the following e-mail today.

Dear Ivin Laurence Gee,

RE: Zopher Gee KWVX-4VQ
Esther Beckwith LHF7-QYG

Thank you for contacting FamilySearch Support. Zopher Gee and Esther Beckwith no longer show Sophia as a child. Thank you for bringing this concern to our attention.

Sincerely,

FamilySearch Data Administration


This concludes the Sophia Tinker episode. Now on to Ruth Gee. We will see what happens here.

Sophia Tinker/Gee

As I promised in the last sentence of my Caroline Gee McGavin Conclusion, I have launched into a new Adventure. You can read about The Sophia Gee Dilemma by clicking on the following link:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxseXNhbmRlcmdlZXdlYnNpdGV8Z3g6NTEwODdhYzNiN2UwZTU4OA

I then tried to solve the problem, which you can follow on the following link.

Solving the Sophia Gee Problem

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxseXNhbmRlcmdlZXdlYnNpdGV8Z3g6NmI2NDBiMTBkOTY1MDk1Zg

At the conclusion of this missive, I stated that I would contact Support for their assistance.

My e-mail to Support:

Zopher Gee KWVX-4VQ and Esther Beckwith Person identifier: LHF7-QYG are my fourth great grandparents.

There is listed a daughter Sophia that does not belong to this marriage. I have outlined this in two PDF files.

I will attach them to the automated reply because attachments cannot be sent with this e-mail to you.

I would appreciate your help in this matter. Esther Beckwith is the Daughter of Zenos Beckwith and Anna Harris. She only had three children by her marriage to Zopher Gee, viz, John, Salmon, and Esther. She died shortly after the death of Esther. Sophia was never a product of this marriage and she did not have an illegitimate daughter before she married Zopher.

Ivin Laurence Gee

I received a prompt reply.

Response from Support at Family Search:

Dear Brother Gee,

Thank you for contacting FamilySearch. We understand you are trying to remove the records of Sophia LCC6-8JH and Sophia MBM2-5DB as children of Zopher Gee KWVX-4VQ and Esther Beckwith LHF7-QYG. You indicated that you have documentation verifying that these individuals do not belong in that family. We see that there are multiple contributors to these records.

Your case has been reviewed and was forwarded to experts in the department for further examination. You will be contacted by them directly when they have completed their investigation. Please be aware that it may take some time before they are able to get back with you. No other action on your part is necessary. Please refrain from working on these records while they are under review.

As you may be aware, the Help Center, which is located on the home page and the bottom of each page in new.FamilySearch, is a great resource for finding the answers to most of your questions.

Thank you for your continuing patience and diligent participation as you work in the new FamilySearch.

Sincerely,

FamilySearch

I sent them PDF files of the above links. We will now await their response.

An e-mail from my cousin Lamont

In trying to find out where the misinformation about Frances Gates as a spouse of Caroline Gee came from I wrote an e-mail to my cousin Lamont. His father, Lynn, was the premier genealogist of the siblings in his family.

Dear Lamont,

I suppose that you still have your father's genealogy records. Here is a problem that I came upon. Perhaps you could look at the family group sheet that he submitted and see if there is documentation as to where he got the information.

I then attached the e-mail that I sent to Family Search Support.

Here is his reply:

Laurence,

Dad was not very good at documenting his sources. Much of what he got was found at the family history library in Salt Lake and, I think, from various paper records collected from here and there and everywhere.
There isn't any way for me to backtrack to a source. So, if you are confident of your information then, by all means, make the corrections as you deem appropriate.

LaMont

Comment:
Historically there were two separate calls for members of the church to submit four generations of family group sheets to the church. This was called the four generation program. Thousands of sheets were submitted and collected and organized by surname in binders and were available to members of the church. When I saw the collection it was on the East wing of the second floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial building.

Volunteers took those records and entered each sheet into a computer database. This became known as the Ancestral File. It was not uncommon for people to copy the sheets and make that part of their personal database. There was little data quality control of the submitted sheets. Thus if the data was entered onto a sheet, it was considered correct. There was quality control of the data entered into the computer by the volunteers, but no checking of sources. Thus if someone submitted a sheet with erroneous information it would be perpetuated in private databases from the submitted sheets or from information from the Ancestral file.

A good example of this is the birth place of Lysander Gee. He was born in Austinburg, Ashtabula, Ohio but if you look in New Family Search and some of the records in Ancestral file you will find a birth place of Hanover, New York. Thus when these computer databases were combined to produce New Family Search all of these records were merged into one individual record perpetuating the misinformation.

Another case was that of Stephen Gee, the son of Solomon Gee, who was listed both as a male and a female. After submitting proof of his maleness, NFS wrote the following:
Dear Ivin Laurence Gee,
Re: Stephen Gee- PID (L7ZP-M7M)
Because the record with the incorrect gender was submitted by one individual, the record for Stephen Gee showing the wrong gender no longer appears in new Family Search. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
Sincerely,
FamilySearch Data Administration

It takes a lot less time to submit the correct information than it does to change it once it is in the NFS database.

I believe it is our generation's responsibility to correct the records to reflect the true information. This will take patience, persistence and long-suffering on our part, but we now have many of the tools necessary to obtain the correct information.

Relationships to prophets

Some years ago my brother Glendon asked if Salmon Gee joined the church because of the common ancestry between the Gee and Mack families. I carefully researched this and as far as I know there was no knowledge of the relationship. I looked in the Church History Department which was at the time known as the Archives of the Church historians office. I read all the hand-written journal of Zebedee Coltrin, the man that baptized Salmon Gee, looking for clues. I found none.

Recently my brother Martell asked whether Joseph Smith ever knew that he had a common ancestor with Brigham Young or Salmon Gee. In order to get an answer to this question, I asked my neighbor Ron Barney about this. Ron has been retired form the Church History Department and worked on the Joseph Smith papers. He is probably as knowledgeable as any one about the Prophet Joseph Smith. He stated that as far as he knew, Joseph and Brigham were not aware of their relationship.

To illustrate our relationship to the Mack family I wrote a brief explanation some time ago. Here is the link.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxseXNhbmRlcmdlZXdlYnNpdGV8Z3g6MWZkNjA5OTZhNGQ3MTk3Yg&pli=1