Colorado Place Name Errors
I find more place name errors in sources related to Colorado every day. Today, for example, the standardized place name recommendation for the Elmwood Cemetery in Fruita, Colorado, which is in Mesa County, Colorado, is "Elmwood Cemetery, Fruita, Gunnison, Colorado." Many place names are incorrect in the Colorado Statewide Marriage and Divorce records are wrong. For example, they'll stick Glenwood Springs in Pitkin County, Colorado, combining the information from where the minister lives with where the marriage was performed. I submitted information to correct place names for Parachute, Colorado, which was Grand Valley, Colorado for 70 years, and for Denver, Colorado, which was in Arapahoe county before 1902, and in Denver county since, but even though I received a response agreeing with my research, the standardized place names pulldown wasn't modified to add these correct place name options. In one census record, every record is wrong because it says that the location is Creeley, Weld County, Colorado. I can see where a human might misinterpret the handwriting to think that there's a place called Creeley, Colorado, but it is obviously Greeley, Weld County, Colorado. I correct those when I find them, but this error should be corrected for the thousands of records, at a more universal level. And then there are census records which list Colorado as a place name before Colorado existed. Some of the errors can be corrected individually, but in some cases, the edit field isn't even available. What I would like is an easier way to point out these numerous errors; and the ability to apply to review and correct a set of records, such as the marriage records, which appear to have been indexed by a computer. My knowledge of Colorado geography and place names is extensive, and I used to do a lot of indexing back in the old days when they actually had numerous projects listed. So I'm qualified to fix these problems in specific indexes. Meanwhile, how can we actually get the accepted standardized place names corrected? Why would anyone think that Fruita, Colorado is in Gunnison County or that there's a Creeley, Colorado? No person thought that--some silly computer which wasn't given proper parameters, thought it, and it's generated thousands of errors.
Answers
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Hi @Judy Crook_1 ,
Thank you for reporting your concerns about standardized places that appear on indexed records that are not correct.
We understand that when records have been indexed, there are sometimes automated processes which select the standardized location, and sometimes that process makes mistakes.
Many indexed records, however, can be edited. When the Edit button at the top of an indexed record is active and has not been greyed-out, you can usually make the individual corrections yourself as described in the following knowledge article about correcting Indexing and Transcription errors.
When corrections cannot be made, here are a few common reasons why you may not be able to correct a transcription error that you find.
- As of March 2020, the capability to edit incorrect dates and places may depend on language, location, and the collection where the record is stored. If you are unable to edit a date or place, please be patient. The capability is forthcoming.
- Some of the indexed records on FamilySearch.org do not have a corresponding image that can be used to validate the correction.
- FamilySearch may not own the index, and our agreement with the index owner may not allow for user-submitted corrections.
In the past we have been able to send major issues to a specialized team to determine how to make major corrections, however, they have been backlogged and have run more than a year behind in working with major known issues. We no longer have the ability to forward new concerns to them.
Thank you for your patience during this time of transition. Please feel free to make whatever corrections you can make manually, and we apologize for any inconvenience you may experience when you find a large quantity of records with incorrect locations in the indexed information.
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Thanks for the reply. I understand people being behind with a backlog of work, which is why I wish you'd let experienced indexers fix these problems, or at least report them more so that changes are made. For example, when I get feedback that yes, we can see that Denver, Colorado has been in the county of Denver since 1902, but we can't make any changes reflecting that anywhere, such as the standardized place names, then I become frustrated by inability to make things better at Family Search. Fixing one record at a time (when allowed) is not efficient. Here we had a pandemic, with lots of people with time on their hands, and our ability to make things better has been taken away. It is extremely frustrating. It makes me think that you're going to turn over the indexing on the 1950 census to a bunch of computers instead of letting us do it. Anyway, I appreciate getting a reply, and to make this somewhat useful (and because there's no other place to do it), I will post Colorado indexing errors I find here.
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First thought: Prior to 1883, Fruita may have been in Gunnison county. Mesa county was formed in 1883 from Gunnison county. This happens everywhere when new counties were formed or county boundaries were changed. When a record was created will determine which county is listed.
Second thought: At FamilySearch we do not use computers to index records. However, a few years ago we did standardize the place names. In some cases it made a big mess that we are working to correct. If we have a specific record that is part of a group that was mis-standardized, we can send the group of records to another department to be corrected. I can take over a year to be corrected since we have a backlog. However, if it was indexed incorrectly, that can not be fixed so easily. In this case we rely on guests to correct the errors. Our indexers are volunteers like yourself and they do their best but sometimes make errors. We have many collections that other websites allow us to share on our site. Many of them do use computers to transcribe their records. You would need to contact the partner site concerning their records.
If there are any collections that you think may have incorrect errors from the standardization process, please let us know so we can send them to the other department to be corrected. Please create a new post for each collection with the incorrect place name and what the correct place should be. Please attach the URL because we have to find the collection and document the error before we can send it on to be corrected. Thank you for your help.
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Thanks for your reply.
Although I could certainly take the time to thoroughly research the history of Elmwood Cemetery in Fruita, Mesa County, Colorado, my guess is that it didn't exist in 1883, and if by chance it did, for most of its history it has been in Mesa County, Colorado, which was not an option on the standardized list when I used it yesterday.
Here is an example of one of the hundreds of mis-indexed records in the Colorado Statewide Marriage Index. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KNQ4-5GG It says they were married in Steamboat Springs, and it's indexed as being in Eagle County, Colorado for a marriage that took place in 1933. Steamboat Springs was definitely in Routt County in 1933. In fact, it was the county seat. I found this record just by typing in the surname Smith and scrolling down the first page. I've found hundreds of errors in this one database. If it wasn't indexed by a computer, then it was indexed by people who didn't know the state, or who weren't given a list of standardized names to use. This particular record can be edited, but I'll leave it as is so you can take a look. The easiest way to fix the hundreds of errors in this database if they can't be manually reviewed (which I would willingly do), would be to apply a list of standardized place names to it.
Thanks for the advice about collections with errors from the standardization process. I appreciate your help and will create new posts as you suggest.
jlc
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