This thread has moved slightly from downloading or merging data from public trees to using public trees
I still do not believe you should ever merge from a public tree or gedcom, but I use public trees to check hypothesis.
If I am on a public tree and I find a document that is applicable to my tree, I would be stupid not to download the document, source it, and attach it to my tree. This is especially so if there is an image of that documents, or the information is will sourced, and I can verify it.
When I am doing research, and I find the name of the person I am looking for on a public tree, but find that tree has the individual well documented and diverging from the person I am looking for, unless there is strong reasons to suspect the tree I will look else where.
Public trees have a purpose, but it is not a source from which to merge information.
I still do not believe you should ever merge from a public tree or gedcom, but I use public trees to check hypothesis.
If I am on a public tree and I find a document that is applicable to my tree, I would be stupid not to download the document, source it, and attach it to my tree. This is especially so if there is an image of that documents, or the information is will sourced, and I can verify it.
When I am doing research, and I find the name of the person I am looking for on a public tree, but find that tree has the individual well documented and diverging from the person I am looking for, unless there is strong reasons to suspect the tree I will look else where.
Public trees have a purpose, but it is not a source from which to merge information.