Edit to Database/Collection Name

SummerStanley

Hi, this is my first time posting so please bear with me, and excuse any errors in terminology. I'll try to be clear as possible. My issue is that I've come across a labeling issue that caused me quite some confusion.

Basically, a collection exists on this site called "Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915, 1921-1924"(www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1463156). However, this collection contains a great number of birth records! So I will see a "record hint" and it will say something like "Mentioned in the Death Record of [NAME] Death • Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915, 1921-1924", and it confused me that no death date was cited in such a record, and the only "event type" was birth. So I click "view original document" and it takes me to a scan of a birth register and a page labeled "Massachusetts Births, 1841-1915".

I ended up spending quite a bit of time very confusedly clicking on different things trying to find the death record mentioned in the record hint before I understood the issue.

Basically, although all the information was correct, having birth records be called "Death Records" and contained in a collection labeled "Deaths" is very confusing, and I think it would be beneficial to retitle this collection!

genthusiast

Collection:  "Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915, 1921-1924"(www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1463156)

If you click the "How to use this collection" it takes you to the Wiki page for this collection - which among other things has the section 'What can these records tell me":

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Massachusetts_Deaths_-_FamilySearch_Historical_Records#What_Can_These_Records_Tell_Me.3F

• Date and place of birth

I do not know why birth records would be referenced in a collection of death records - except if they correspond to a death record for a person also in the collection. It is very common for death records to reference birth date/event.

If you want to provide a specific example or question about a particular person/record - perhaps this would help understand this issue further?

Perhaps this issue could be added to the 'Known issues' section of the collection's wiki if detailed sufficiently.

Andrea Matthews

I've noticed the same thing. Here's an example: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FXDH-98L Leander Woodbury Jr's 1883 birth comes up in the "Death" Collection mentioned above (as does his bro West A.'s in 1885). It's just a weird distraction. They are NOT connected to the death record of anyone mentioned in these records. Probably should be mentioned in the "Known Issues" section, at the very least. Otherwise the collection should be relabeled "Births" (or "Births & Deaths" if they're mixed together).