Biden Listed as 'Lifeless in 2018' on Ancestry.com?

On June 11, 2024, an X user claimed family tree web site Ancestry.com listed U.S. President Joe Biden as lifeless. In accordance with the positioning, she stated, Biden died in Guantánamo, Cuba, in 2018.

The X person included a video in her submit that allegedly confirmed Ancestry.com itemizing a Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. as lifeless.

The identical X person posted an analogous declare on June 12 and held a dwell broadcast discussing the rumor on June 11.

Similar posts appeared elsewhere on X, whereas one X user requested whether or not it was true.

Another X person stated: “Attention-grabbing. I’m able to pull this up additionally. Now my query is, who owns/runs Ancestry.com? I by no means use this web site, so I do not know on the validity of the knowledge supplied. Although, I might not be shocked if true.”

Collectively, the posts had amassed greater than 5 million views on the time of this writing.

The Ancestry.com page referenced within the declare and video was actual (archived here), which is why we’ve got rated this declare as “True.” It stated a Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. died in Guantánamo, Cuba, in 2018. The date and place of origin — Nov. 20, 1942, in Scranton, Pennsylvania — matched that of U.S. President Joe Biden.

Nonetheless, regardless of the itemizing being actual, a disclaimer on Ancestry.com’s web site acknowledged anybody can add data to the database. Due to this fact, not every thing seen on the web site will probably be official:

The choice to add private data to the Ancestry web site is your duty… You agree to offer true, correct and full data. If any data you present is, in our sole judgment, false or deceptive, we reserve the suitable to terminate your use of Ancestry and/or delete all content material that you’ve got submitted… We additionally reserve the suitable to take away any person supplied content material which involves our consideration and which we consider, in our sole discretion, is prohibited, obscene, indecent, defamatory, incites racial or ethnic hatred, violates the rights of others or in any other case violates this Settlement.

Another page on Ancestry.com defined learn how to add and take away data from its database.

As well as, the Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. itemizing stated the president was buried within the U.S. Military’s Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. Nonetheless, the cemetery’s media chief, Rebecca Wardwell, instructed Snopes by way of e-mail: “I can affirm that President Joe Biden shouldn’t be laid to relaxation at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery.”

The Ancestry.com itemizing additionally cites a separate itemizing (archived here) on cemetery report web site Find a Grave because the supply of the declare Joe Biden died in Guantánamo in 2018. The Discover a Grave itemizing was revealed on March 15, 2024; nevertheless, it had since been deleted. The memorial written within the archived Discover a Grave itemizing contained conspiratorial claims, reminiscent of former U.S. President Donald Trump being in cost of the present Biden administration.

Snopes contacted the user who uploaded the Discover a Grave itemizing for remark and can replace this text if we obtain a response.

Ancestry.com’s disclaimer stated it was not accountable or accountable for hyperlinks — e.g., the Discover a Grave hyperlink — its members submit to different websites:

An Ancestry person may submit hyperlinks to different websites. Neither Ancestry.com nor Ancestry endorses and isn’t accountable or accountable for any content material, services or products out there from these websites and by way of these hyperlinks.

Amongst Ancestry.com’s “Guidelines for Conduct” is an obligation for customers to not “impersonate any particular person or entity or falsely misrepresent your affiliation with any particular person or entity or falsely declare an endorsement that you simply don’t have.”

No credible media outlets reported that Joe Biden died in Guantánamo in 2018, which might have been eminently newsworthy if it had been true.

On June 13, 2024, Getty revealed numerous photos of the U.S. president attending the 2024 G7 Summit in Italy.

Snopes contacted Ancestry.com and Discover a Grave for remark and can replace this text if we obtain a response.

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