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Allow individuals to report a particular database with significant errors

LMillerd
LMillerd ✭
March 18 edited March 18 in Suggest an Idea

I have seen multiple databases with a significant amount of errors. I am not exactly sure how one would do this, and perhaps this is the best forum for that?

Most notably: The high number of errors in Connecticut Births & Christenings: (https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1674736).

Many individuals are a) only listed by their first name, with no surname in the record, b) if there IS a surname, their actual surname is inaccurately listed as their mother's maiden name, c) the place / locations are extremely inaccurate (example: New Hartford, CT is frequently entered as New Hartford, Oneida, NY, or Brooklyn, Connecticut, entered as Brooklyn, New York). Given that this index does not allow for any corrections and is not connected to the individual records (even though the image records are on family search), this means that many researchers in CT need to pay to access the Barbour index (which is often a tertiary source, as the history of the compilation is often from an index of an index, and the names are often listed under one variant rather than all the variants on FamilySearch)

So, there are records theoretically there, but the database (I assume taken from Ancestry indexing perhaps?) is largely not helpful / useful as it wont show matches of first name.

Examples:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLM4-C9GQ (first name only, missing last name of Hovey)

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLMW-XP9V (first name only, missing last name of Loomis, location should be Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut)

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4VPG-BWW2 (error in place of birth)

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLMW-X8W9 (first name only, lists location as Hartford, CT instead of Windsor, Hartford County, CT)

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLMW-7N2S (first name only, missing last name of Miller, lists location as Hartford instead of Farmington, Hartford County, Connecticut)

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  • Correcting indexing errors
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New · Last Updated March 18

Comments

  • SConee
    SConee ✭
    May 6

    This database is totally incorrect - it's for Canada, New Brunswick; however, indexed

    as New South Wales, Australia.


    https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:8BKN-9WMM


    William Thomas Henderson

    Canada, New Brunswick County Register of Births, 1801-1920

    Name:William Thomas Henderson

    Event Type:Birth

    Event Date:17 Feb 1851

    Event Place:Long Reach, New South Wales, Australia

    Event Place (Original):Long Reach

    Sex:Male

    Father's Name:George Henderson

    Mother's Name:Margaret Kimbell

    0
  • SConee
    SConee ✭
    May 6

    and here's another one for Canada, New Brunswick - it seems that the birthplace of Long Reach

    instead of indexing it to Kings County, New Brunswick, Canada, it is all over the map - the last one

    was Long Reach, new South Wales, Australia -

    this database https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:81YH-PZN2 is now showing California - for

    the same place, same person. And it looks like many other problems with the Canada, New Brunswick

    births databases.

    This is one person where the multiple incorrect databases are found in William Thomas

    Henderson's birth sources. ID #KFH6-MT2

    I found one correctly indexed because it has the original record.

    0
  • Julia Szent-Györgyi
    Julia Szent-Györgyi ✭✭✭✭✭
    May 6

    Both of @SConee's records are classic-by-now auto-standardization errors: the original index had just the bare placename (Long Reach, Long Beach), and the bot totally and completely ignored the collection title or other blatant clues to the actual locations, going with the first item on the list instead, never mind if it's the wrong side of the globe.

    When will the Powers That Be at FamilySearch finally realize the enormous scope of this problem? It cannot be fixed piecemeal. There are quite literally millions of these errors in the database. Please, FS, just revert all of the autostandardizations and start over, making sure that the new process uses the known information about each record's origins to prevent the ridiculous choices that the failed process made.

    (Given that R versus B can be very similar, it seems likely that both records actually have the same place, but without access to the actual images, I don't know if it's Reach or Beach that's correct.)

    0
  • Evergreen
    Evergreen ✭
    May 16

    Here's another one: Marriage records clearly from Gundy County, Missouri are mis-cited as being from Gundy County, Iowa:

    Cite This Record

    "Missouri, County Marriage, Naturalization, and Court Records, 1800-1991," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6ZMQ-DCM8 : 25 February 2022), M G Kennedy, 1882; citing Marriage, Grundy, Iowa, United States, Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City; FHL microfilm 007425061.

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