Sarah Webster - Sarah Webster doesn't appear to have been married to Thomas Mudgett

Private User,

This is a part of the tree that was recently horribly vandalized by a user with a free trial Pro account. She merged many profiles together, both male and female, from several different generations before her account was terminated by Geni. I believe the indication of marriage between Sarah Webster and Thomas Mudgett is either a result of the attempt to start repairing the damage, or from the vandalism itself. Note the profiles marked "do not merge" nearby, and the horrendous mess in the area of Daniel Chase just two generations down from Sarah. In other words, almost everything in the part of the tree over 3 or 4 generations is completely hosed.

I am one of many curators who have been scratching their heads about how to repair or rebuild this part of the tree. As a next step, I think we might want to take an inventory of ALL of the affected (or potentially affected) profiles in this area and start collecting the information necessary to rebuild from scratch. I honestly cannot imagine a way to surgically separate everything without creating orphans out of most of the profiles involved. Yes it's very, very sad, but repairing/rebuilding it is the only option at this point.

But where to begin?

Oh, that's so sad, David. It's heartbreaking that one person could do so much damage.

I wonder if we should start a project specifically aimed at repairing this part of the tree? Then we'd have a place to gather the profiles that need work, as well as the ability to recruit a team to help with the work...

I think that's an excellent idea, Jennifer. That might also be a good place to discuss possible courses of action for the repair effort. Once we have an accounting of all profiles affected, then we can start removing all wrong connections from each of them. This will create many orphans, but at least we won't lose track of them and will hopefully be able to reconnect them in the right places eventually.

When creating the project, I think it would be helpful to divide affected profiles into at least two groups: 1) profiles whose data contents have been clearly corrupted by incorrect merging, and 2) profiles that have wrong connections, but otherwise appear to contain valid data. Unfortunately, most profiles that fall into category 1) may need to be eventually deleted once we copy and paste any salvageable data out of them.

I think the two categories idea is a really good one. Okay, that gives us a place to start. Who was it who said that all you need to plan are the first three steps because the rest will fall into place once you get started? ;-)

Since you have a more macro view of the problem, do you want to create the project?

Since there are other curators involved, I'd like to hear their feelings about this "controlled burn" proposed approach before stepping on their toes.

The other concern is that, as soon as we start breaking connections, there will likely be a flood of complaints to Geni about why their trees have suddenly [apparently] shrunk because this renegade curator (me) has removed parents and spouses from profiles that they [jointly] manage, so I need to know that Geni is prepared to deal with that interim fallout during demolition and reconstruction.

Once I get the all clear, I can create the project.

That makes total sense, David. I'm assuming that tagging everyone, curators included, at the beginning of this discussion will have been enough to get the curators involved, and that you can take care of working with admin on their end of it. I'll step back and wait for you to let me know when and what to do next. Thanks so much for your assistance with what I thought was going to be a quick fix but is turning out to be much more!

Well actually, I have already taken one step: I have already disconnected Thomas Mudgett from Sarah Webster.

Private User, I've created the project. It is under the name "Chase / Lane / Rundlett / Huntoon and surrounding areas Damage Recovery".

http://www.geni.com/projects/Chase-Lane-Rundlett-Huntoon-and-surrou...

Thank you so much, David, I think this is a very important effort.

Okay, Sarah Webster has been disconnected from Thomas Mudgett and his authenticated second wife has been reconstructed: Ann Long Mudgett Magoon

I plan to work on the Mudgett-Morrill-Long-French area of the tree for awhile, at least until I can get my direct ancestors and their immediate families in order. Will do what I can to help with the cleanup in the damaged section.

Person's involved with Vandalized profiles.

Hiromimarie has asked 'Please hold off on repairing the parts of the tree that were merged incorrectly until further notice. Mike is going to try to undo some of the damage today.'

I really hope Mike will be able to fix this

Miracles are unlikely.

Oh ye of little faith.

Does anyone know if Mike has had any luck so far?

I have not seen much improvement so far. I'll need to ask him if he's still trying, or if he has given up.

That would be great to know so that we'd know whether we need to start manual fixes or not. Poor Mike. He gets all the *fun* jobs!

If you check Daniel Chase 1741...he has gone from having 59 siblings to only 3.....so progress is being made....I believe that there are stages of FIX that have to be addressed.

It might be wise to put off working on the Vandalism issues until Hiromimarie lets us know that Mike is done. At least some of the multiple merged Profiles have been returned but they are not able to be merged with duplicates and I have reported this. Hopefully Mike will be able to fix that issue also.

So far as I know Mike is not done with the fix.

I think we have put it off, Carole. But it's always nice to be kept in the communication loop so that we can anticipate when we can pick it up again.

Wow, Fay, from 59 sibs to 3 seems like a tremendous amount of progress, yay!

I think he cant be everywhere...and there are so many families involved...he has to chip away at it.....a bit here, a bit there....till it melts down to the original (whether that was right or wrong).....

Just pick one of the profiles in the Chase/Lane/Rundlett, Huntoon etc project....print it out....and then wait a day or two and check it again....that is what I did on Daniel Chase...so I do have the 'before' and 'after' printouts on him.

Maybe research a particular person in the project and PUT something into that persons profile (the 'about me') as a roadmap IF the fix needs help...but dont try to 'fix' things while the BIG FIX is in process....

At least that way you dont feel like you are doing nothing....

Thank you Mart! And welcome.

I'm going to work in the Wheeler lines - so I will be calling on your assistance.

I really appreciate your help, Mart! I've been working on Ann Long Mudgett Magoon , one of the wives of Thomas Mudgett. I would welcome any information you have about her.

Do you think this "Sarah Ann Webster Magoon" is correct? I've been looking at other family trees online and I only see her listed as "Sarah Webster" (no marriage to anyone). Maybe I'm wrong, but I think she was merged with [6000000022484008897].

There are no sources, but perhaps she should be removed from Alexander Magoon. Here are family trees on other websites with her lineage (no marriages or added last names):
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~glenngenealogy/p3...
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/l/a/m/Dana-Lambert-FL/WE...
http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Webster-1976

Here are sites that have no sources, but has her married to William Lane:
http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Sarah_Webster_(20)
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~megen/reunion/wc1...

I'm not sure that other online family trees constitute sources that should be used to resolve things like this. Can we find vital records on her that will uphold or eliminate the marriage?

Alexander Magoon information
Books available online at Internet Archive
Not really enough to verify all the wives.

History of the town of Exeter, New Hampshire (1888)
http://archive.org/details/cu31924028835770
http://archive.org/stream/cu31924028835770#page/n525/mode/1up
Alexander Magoon son of Elizabeth Listen & Henry Magoon, b. 6 Sep. 1661 md. Sarah Blake 7 Dec. 1682
http://archive.org/stream/cu31924028835770#page/n569/mode/1up
Baptisms
Dolly, d. of Alexander Magoon ; 17 June 1750.
Elizabeth, d. of Alexander Magoon; 3 Dec. 1752.
Jonathan Leavitt, s. of Alexander Magoon ; 1 June 1755.
Alexander, s. of Alexander Magoon ; 26 March 1758.
Mercy, d. of Alexander Magoon ; 4 April 1762.

The Essex antiquarian (1897) v5-6
http://archive.org/details/essexantiquarianv5v6sale
http://archive.org/stream/essexantiquarianv5v6sale#page/n310/mode/1up
Anna Ash dau. of Mary Bartlett & John Ash married Alexander Magoon of Exeter, N. H., husbandman, before 1706

There must of been several Alexander Magoon's, the baptisms are surely for another Alexander then the husband of Sarah Blake.

If this is part of the Chase/Lane/Rundlett/Huntoon and others MESS I would hold off actually CHANGING or deleting anyone...it could affect the FIX.....

But by all means, pick a person's profile and provide GOOD sources if you find them....not just URL's please...actual brief biographies are best....and, as Carol said..stay clear of PDF data...

If they are NOT part of the BIG MESS then the info is there...if they are part of it, then helpful data will be available.

I would hope that when the programmers and Mike are done with all they can do in any area, that they would report back to us....so we can then proceed....right now it is difficult to know whether any FIXES will confuse the DE-MERGE sequence or not...

And we all are getting antsy to DO something.