help please: Ancestry has made my tree useless how do i delete it?

[Essnell]

Hi
Been  a few days and nothing is any different. I have not looked at hints etc for over a week.
A bit of explanation. 

1.  My original tree on Ancestry had only a few people. about 6. 
2. I also have had on Genes Reunited from some time in 1990s a tree that I deleted.
3. A similar small tree on My Heritage.

4.  My main big tree is only on my computer and that tree is in the specific tree program. It's also got several side trees. Those go nowhere near internet,

Now there is my parents and they are trying to add those people's parents. I do not need this in an online tree. 

Besides the fact that it was done only just to have a small tree it should be my choice what goes into it, hints or not.

5 .  My original tree never had me on it. Just my gt grandmother and two of her children.

It is mostly like this because of the inability to find documentary evidence of anyone further back.  But the incident of using privately forwarded photos etc to one person who then put those up on her tree has changed my thoughts about this.  Why not ask first if that would be okay ?

Somehow I have been added to trees belonging  to who knows who.  and I am still living.  I have also been added to my own tree ??  How?
Quote spelk"
Assuming that she Essnell means she is appearing on someone else's tree then unless she has been marked as dead or as born more than 100 yers ago then am I right in thinking that no detail should be shown. " 

Well I would have thought so but apparently not......!!??

I really do not know or understand and i have almost given up trying to understand. 

Essnell.

[Biggles50]

I am not really shore what you are asking but I’ll give it a shot.

Ancestry trees can be in many forms:-

Fully searchable and visible but with anyone still flagged as living shown as “Private”.

Fully searchable but the whole tree is shown as “Private” in anyones search results.

Unsearchable, that is the tree will not be seen in any search results.

Also nite that it has to be a deliberate act to change the flag from the default “Living” to deceased.

Take my tree, it is set as “Private but searchable” so that only people who I give permission to can view it, also note that by default if granted access they cannot see living persons, I have to check the “see living persons” box prior to sending them the invitation to view.

If I add a long deceased person into any of my “visible trees” they will still show as “Private” even if they were born 300 years ago, the “Deceased” checkbox has to be marked to change their status to “visible”.  If on another family tree where you now reside they have to have checked the “Deceased” box for you to be visible to anyone viewing said tree.

A word of explanation, I do not use floating trees so if I want to research say a DNA match I use them as the Home person and build a “fully visible” tree around them and link in other DNA matches who are shared between us.  If I find how the “Home” person and I are linked I use software to combine their tree with my own tree and upload my amended tree back into Ancestry.

I have had many images “borrowed” without being asked if it is OK prior and it used to annoy me, especially when the image would show up a couple of years later assigned to a completely different person in the hint.  Hence why my tree is now private but given the lack of response to messages it is not surprising that images and data is “borrowed” from tree to tree.

I do not rely on Documents as sole proof, all persons born within the last 250 years have to have had their inclusion in my family tree validated but DNA linking each person to DNA Matches “Cousins”.  My own Birth Certificate is a work of fiction so most definitely, no, one cannot rely on documentation as accurate.  If a person is not “Validated by DNA” their header image is a “?” In my family tree. 

[Spelk]

I think there is a way to inadvertently lable a person as dead.
If you know a person was alive in say 2002 because they are on an electoral toll or for some other reason you might say that they were alive then so they must have died after that date.
However computers are stupid and this is then taken to mean that the person has died and are deceased. So avoid the “died after” status.
Ancestry is in breach of the data protection laws by showing trees with your details on against your wishes. Whether you can get them to take those trees down I do not know.
Chances are just one person has put you on their tress and somehow marked you as dead and the rest are just copies
.
“

[rosie17]

Something very strange going on here 

I'm assuming you haven't deleted your tree ?

Rosie

[Essnell]

Hi everyone,  thankyou all for your valuable insights.
Biggles, first there is all the duplicates to deal with and even that does not achieve anything positive or something approaching permanent.

Then this issue of living persons. I will reread this all again later.

Spelk If I was labelled private that would be correct but that is not the case.  I have no idea what Ancestry knows about me being living or not.  It's a secondary issue but important. 

Rosie , No I haven't taken it down...yet.  I will try taking some screen shots for everyone and myself. Might down load it to a USB as well.  Then start again. 

I am sure it's got to do with hints and other persons trees.   
 One thought, would telling them (Ancestry). That I already know the information be construed as saying yes.  In this case I expected those to not keep reappearing but they do.

Ignoring them also does no good.
Hopefully if I start a new tree this will all go away. 
Essnell.

[Biggles50]

There is the Duplicates tool in Ancestry.

That said I suggest buying Roots Magic 11 and start a new project there and import your whole tree into the software.

The original tree stays on Ancestry, you would then have an exact copy of the whole Ancestry tree including media, facts, images etc.

There is a whole mass of Tools available that can be used to determine errors.

Once the error checking is complete the Tree is then Shared back to Ancestry or a new Ancestry Tree started and the Roots Magic tree is exported into the blank Ancestry Tree.

[Spelk]

Essnell,
I can see no reason why you have a tree on Ancestry. It is causing you concerns and seems to have no benefit to you. So just delete it. End of problem.

You say that you have given photos to some woman and she, without asking you, has added the photos to her tree from which anyone can copy them and do whatever they want with them.
A relative once asked me if would like a certain image on the proviso that I did not publish it or pass it on. I declined that offer telling her that though I could promise now that I would keep the image private in a few years I might have forgotten the promise or I could die and my stuff could get passed on to some relative and who knows what then.

Ask the woman to remove it from her tree and if she refuses then you might consider legal action but probably best to write her off as a "not nice person to know" and cease all contact with her.

Where total strangers have got photos which originated from you - well happens to us all. That's a problem with putting anything online and not a lot we can do about it once it has got onto the Internet where there are almost no rules or rights to privacy or copyright. So accept some things have gone and you can never get them back.