A very common FamilySearch mix-up
Why a deceased relative shows as living on FamilySearch, with no dates
You added your grandmother to FamilySearch while she was alive. She has since passed away, yet her profile still has no dates, no sources, and none of the photos your cousins talk about. You are looking at a private copy that never got the news. Here is what happened and the four steps that fix it.
The short answer
There are two of her, and you are attached to the wrong one
When you add a living person to Family Tree, FamilySearch does not put them in the shared, public tree. It creates a record in your private space that only you can see. If your brother adds the same living grandmother, he gets his own private record with its own ID number. Five grandchildren can mean five separate copies of one person, and none of them know about the others.
When she dies, whichever relative records the death first turns their copy into a public profile. From then on, that profile collects the sources, record hints, photos, and stories, and relatives who added her later, or after her death, attach themselves to it. Your copy stays exactly as you left it: living, private, and empty.
The fix is not to type the dates into your copy. It is to mark your copy deceased and merge it into the shared profile so your branch of the family joins everyone else’s.
Why FamilySearch works this way
Private space, public tree
Family Tree is one shared tree for everyone, with one profile per deceased person. Living people are the deliberate exception, and the exception is what creates the duplicates.
Living people are private
A person born within the last 110 years with no recorded death is treated as living. Their details, sources, and timeline are visible only to the account that added them. Not even close relatives on the same family can see the record.
Every account gets its own copy
Because nobody else can see your living relative, nobody can attach to your record. Each relative who adds that person creates another private copy with a new ID. FamilySearch's own example: one living relative in six trees means six IDs.
Deceased people are shared
Adding a death date or place moves a person into the public tree, where the goal is one profile per person. Duplicates are expected here and the merge tools exist to clean them up. But the merge only becomes possible once both copies are deceased.
A worked example
Two brothers each build a tree. The older one adds Grandma while she is alive; the younger one adds her a few years after she has died. The younger brother’s tree links to the public profile: birth and death dates, a census record, a wedding photo an aunt uploaded. The older brother’s tree links to his own private copy from years ago: a name and nothing else. Same grandmother, two ID numbers, and the older brother has no idea the richer profile exists because his tree never points at it. His copy will stay that way until he marks it deceased and merges.
How to tell
Signs you are looking at a private copy
The quickest test is to compare ID numbers with a relative. Every profile shows its ID under the name at the top of the person page. If yours differs from theirs for the same person, you have two records.
Any of these on its own is a strong hint:
- Their profile shows no death date, or the vitals say Living, even though they passed away years ago.
- There are no sources, no record hints, and no photos or stories other relatives have added.
- A sibling or cousin sees a fuller profile for the same person, with a different ID number.
- Searching Find in Family Tree by name and birth date does not turn up the profile you see.
- Their parents are attached, but with the same thin, dateless look, or not attached at all.
The fix
Mark deceased, then merge into the shared profile
Four steps on the FamilySearch website. Each relative who holds a private copy repeats them for their own copy; nobody can do it for you, because nobody else can see your record.
- 1
Mark your copy as deceased
Open the person in Family Tree. In the Vitals section, click the edit icon next to Death, choose Edit, select Deceased, and enter the date and place of death with a reason statement. Save. Your copy leaves your private space and becomes a public profile that other people can see and that FamilySearch can match against duplicates.
- 2
Find the profile everyone else sees
Once your copy is public, open Research Help on the person page and look for Possible Duplicates. If nothing appears, ask a relative to send you the ID number shown under the name on their profile, or use Find in Family Tree with the name and dates. You are looking for the profile that already carries the dates, sources, and Memories.
- 3
Merge the two, keeping the established profile
Start from the fuller public profile, open the Details tab, and click Merge by ID in the Tools section. Enter your copy's ID (capital letters and hyphen) and continue. Compare names, dates, and family members to confirm it is one person. The profile you started from survives; if you began on your copy instead, click Switch so the established profile is the survivor. Give a reason and finish the merge.
- 4
Check what came across
Photos, stories, and sources copy to the surviving profile automatically, and your relationships (you, your parents, your children) now hang off the shared profile. Look at the parents and spouse of the merged person: if you added them while your relative was living, they may be private copies too, and need the same treatment.
Merge, don’t delete
Deleting your copy would drop the relationships that hang off it, including the link to you. A merge carries those relationships, plus any photos and stories, onto the surviving profile. It also keeps a temporary undo option if something looks wrong.
Only merge one person
Compare birth, death, spouse, and parents before you continue. Two women with the same name and a similar birth year are the classic bad merge, and undoing one after other people have edited the profile is slow.
If they really are still living, nothing is broken
A living parent or grandparent is supposed to look thin. Their record is private to you, other relatives cannot see it or add to it, and it will never pick up record hints or public Memories. You also cannot merge two living copies held by different accounts; the merge tools only work inside one private tree or one family group tree. Leave the profile as it is. If you want their details in a book or chart, enter them by hand rather than adding a death date to make the record public.
In your Rememberkin book or chart
Why an ancestor’s page came in empty
Rememberkin reads your FamilySearch tree exactly as your account sees it. If your tree points at a private copy, the book gets a name and little else, and everything upstream of that person may look thin too. Once you merge into the shared profile, use Refresh from FamilySearch in the editor and the dates, sources, and photos flow in. Until then, or for someone still living, you can type the details straight into the editor.
Rememberkin’s connection is read-only. We never mark anyone deceased or merge anything on your behalf; those changes belong on FamilySearch, made by you.
See your tree as a book
Free to build and preview. Sign in through FamilySearch; we read the people you choose and change nothing in your tree.
Common questions
- Why does my grandmother show as living on FamilySearch when she has died?
- Because the profile you are looking at is your private copy of her, created while she was alive. FamilySearch treats anyone born within the last 110 years with no death information as living, and living people exist only in the private space of the person who added them. Nobody else can see or update that copy, so it never learned that she passed away. Add her death information and it becomes a public profile you can merge with the one your relatives use.
- Why does my sibling see dates and photos for the same person and I don't?
- You are looking at two different profiles with two different ID numbers. Your sibling is connected to the public, shared profile that other relatives have been building up. You are connected to a private copy that stopped changing the day you added it. Marking your copy deceased and merging it into the shared profile joins the two.
- Can I merge a living person with a deceased person on FamilySearch?
- No. FamilySearch will not merge a living record with a deceased one, and living duplicates usually don't appear in Possible Duplicates at all. Add the death information to the living copy first. Once both records are deceased and public, use Merge by ID.
- Which profile should survive the merge?
- Keep the established public profile, the one with the sources, Memories, and other relatives attached, and merge your copy into it. On FamilySearch the profile you start the merge from is the survivor, so start from the public profile and enter your copy's ID, or use Switch if you started from the wrong side. Its ID number is the one relatives and other tools already reference.
- Will I lose the photos or stories I added to my copy?
- No. Memories from both records are copied to the surviving profile during a merge. FamilySearch also keeps a temporary undo option, so review the result right after merging.
- Why can't I merge with the copy in my cousin's tree?
- You can only merge records you can both see. Two private copies of a living person in two different accounts cannot be merged with each other, and neither can a private copy and a public profile. The rule is simple: each person who holds a private copy adds the death information to their own copy, then merges it into the shared public profile.
- What if the person really is still living?
- Then nothing is wrong. Living people are private on purpose, they can't be merged across accounts, and third-party tools that read your tree, Rememberkin included, will show little or nothing for them. Leave the profile as it is; you can always type details into your book by hand.
First-party references
Sources and further reading
Checked against FamilySearch Help Center guidance on August 17, 2026. Menu labels move occasionally, so follow the linked articles if a button is not where this page says.
FamilySearch is a service of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Rememberkin is an independent product and is not affiliated with FamilySearch.