Family Search

I was told by Family Search directly that anyone can post any article or info they want even if you have documentation to disprove it. Beware before making a tree! They don't warn you of this until you have an issue. And they will NOT allow you to remove your tree! Major flaws!

Anyone can delete saved proof/evidence or correct lineage in efforts to hijack said lineage for themselves without any recourse for their misguided actions. They can be petty, insecure, and out right fraudulent. It doesn't matter how many times they are corrected or how much concrete proof is offered, they will continue to hijack lineages to makes themselves feel important. This is by far the single worst family tree building site on the internet. Many of them have no DNA testing to prove their claims and refuse to have their DNA tested Wil making full claims against others that have been tested and can provide incontrovertible evidence of their lineage. Then if you try to communicate with anyone about any of it, they can report you for no real offense and the site will terminate your profile. This site is entirely for fake people who stand on other peoples lineage wile posing.

This used to be a good place to find genealogical records, now it is useless, people can change your tree to whatever they want with no documentation of any kind you have members who are sealing records even though they are wrong. Tried searching my French Canadian family name with no results! How can that be since they lived there for close to 200 years!

I love the record hints.

For a free genealogy resource website it's quite amazing. It provides access to billions of records not just images but also searchable records that have been indexed. My most used feature is the Record Hints which uses the information I've inputted into my tree and cross checks it with FamilySearch's searchable records data base. This feature has found so many of my ancestors. With 2 records hints I found 8 new ancestors (being Portuguese, the Portuguese parish records do hold lots of information so that helped too). I also use MyHeritage which has a similar feature but I've found the Record Hints on FamilySearch to be more accurate, at least for my family. Plus it's free.

I love that not only does FamilySearch.org give quite accurate record hints, it only gives you access to search through so many records. I am able to help friends this way search for their family anywhere in the world as FamilySearch.org holds so many records worldwide.

Seems like FamilySearch does not care how accurate or truthful the information posted on their site is. Provided rebutting evidence from a superior court, certified county records and diocesan records refuting the illegitimate claims to no avail. Tried to delete information, but that one other individual keep reposting the false info. One of the entries could result in an illicit attempt to extort money from my parents' estate. Irony is we never posted anything on this site, it was disseminated from another site we had used. In short, be very careful about anything you post on the internet.

Content on their site violates copyright and intellectual property laws, because members can scan and post material (current magazine articles, for example) no matter who wrote it or how recently it was written. My own work was scanned and put on their site, and I tried in vain to have Family Search remove it. Hours spent on the phone ended up with me being told I would have to track down the individual who illegally scanned and uploaded my work, to ask that person to take it down, rather than Family Search protecting themselves and upholding the rights of historians, authors, artists and researchers around the world by simply removing the article (plainly taken from a recent publication).

Because it is free site everyone can add a bit of genealogy. If it matches other ancestry they will alert you. Records can often go back into the 1400s and earlier. Its a great rabbit hole to go down.

So much great information available, from the records that are ready to be attached, to the collections that are available to search through. Such a wonderful resource.
As with any resource, check the actual image against what is on the record page. Sometimes it doesn't match up or the transcription for a location is in the wrong country for example.
Regarding the one big collaborative tree, again, validate the source citations to be sure of relationships and ensure that conflation isn't occurring.

I have put in my family members and had a nice tree started. Worked on it for days and many hours. One day someone came along and removed my family and inserted people I don't even know. I tried to fix it. I was frustrated and sent that person who kept changing everything messages about it. She replied to me and was very rude. I asked who her boss was. Never replied. I ended up sending a copy of what she said to me to the Family Research email. They have never replied. I find this site useless if you really want to see 'your' real family tree. I will add this, my mothers side of the family immigrated here and they use varied names. Example they would put something on the census that was not perhaps their legal names, etc. These people can't grasp that I guess. I fully enjoyed this endevour when I first started but not any more. I checked my account this morning and they have made no corrections. SO what's the point? If they decide who our families are it serves zero purpose.

Please do not enter or try to update your family tree on Family Search. Anyone can enter conflicting information you have uploaded, even though they may not have any relationship to the family members or may not know anything about them. There are countless errors in my tree entered by others, There is only certain information that can be changed. Once the other erroneous information is there, you can't change it or delete it. Also, it's very difficult to navigate the website. I scheduled a 20 minute chat with Family Search and the information given to me was incorrect on how to upload a file. I called the help phone number and the directions given to me was completely opposite from the original. Don't waste your time. Use Ancestry.com instead. That way you have total control over your tree.