How to submit a correction?
Answers
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I have found on the marriage transcription for Max Illenberger, 1874, Ebnat, Neresheim, Württemberg and his spouse Victoria Hauber, their parents are reversed. Max's parents show as the parents of Victoria etc.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:DQWN-XQMM
I have spent over a half hour trying to figure out how to submit a correction! Next time I won't bother!
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I have found a lot of incorrect information, apparently submitted by other people, in my family tree at FamilySearch. I have submitted the correct information that is my personal knowledge, but it never shows up. The bad info is apparently there forever. I have come to have no confidence in anything at FamilySearch because of this. One submittal is for the father of my paternal great-grandmother, and it shows he was 11 years old when his marriage took place, and his "wife" was 12. I've never found any clue to that father, and there is no evidence provided that the person named is correct.
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@Frey1, while some things in some indexes can now be changed on FamilySearch, relationships between entries are not among them. This does not prevent the index from being attached to the correct people, and as you've demonstrated, the error did not prevent the index from serving its purpose: you found the record.
Keep in mind that the index is not the data. It is merely a finding aid for the data.
@MaxByers, what do you mean by "submitted the correct information"? What part of the vast sprawl that is FamilySearch were you in? The different parts work very, very differently from each other, and it's important to keep the differences in mind.
The major parts, as I see them, are: (1) images of historical documents; (2) indexes of historical documents; and (3) Family Tree. (There are other bits and bobs, such as Genealogies, Indexing, or the Research Wiki, but I see them as "supporting cast".) There are various ways of interfacing with each part, such as the Catalog for images and Search - Records for indexes, and there are connections between the parts: for example, indexes are linked to the images they're based on, and to the Tree profiles they've been attached to.
Users of FamilySearch have different degrees of input in the various parts. We have basically no say in images of historical records: we can't make corrections to the catalog (well, nobody can, right now, as it has been locked since at least last summer for some sort of unspecified development work), we can't suggest new historical documents to scan/digitize (that's done at the corporation/government level), and we can't make any changes in the connections between images and indexes (not even if they're wrong). Users of FamilySearch do have some input into indexes of historical records. The primary way is through indexing, which is done by volunteers just like you and me. In addition, some fields of some already-published indexes are user-editable, but this newish feature doesn't extend to the relationships between index entries or to the metadata (such as the collection title and dates, and often the location).
What we as users do have input into is the Family Tree. This is a communal and open-edit tree which is almost entirely user-submitted. (Even the parts that are labeled with "FamilySearch" for the contributor ultimately go back to a user submission in a prior system.) We also have nearly full control over the connections between the Tree and images and indexes, although the system only gives hints about the latter. (FamilySearch, like all of the genealogy sites out there, prioritizes indexes over images because indexes are computer-parseable, whereas images are not -- as the preliminary computer index of the 1950 census is currently so clearly demonstrating.)
If you can give some details about where you found an error, and what you did to try to fix it (that didn't work), we can try to explain what's going on and what you can do. Don't despair: it really is a vast and confusing sprawl, but it contains vast amounts of good data, once you figure out how to navigate it all.
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I have found over the years that Family Search is unreliable as a source. In my visit today to search 2 members of my recent family (my father and my great-aunt), their names are misspelled. The one in the tree has her husband's first name misspelled and also her surname spelled wrong. I tried to fix them but the explanation (remove/replace) was so daunting, I ended up sending a message to the person who had last made a change. Whoever that is. I suspect it's a volunteer who just misinterpreted the handwriting (understandable - I used to be a volunteer), but many records are available that are right. However, they'd never be found with these errors.
My father's surname was unusual but not indiscernible or unpronounceable. It is misspelled four different ways on his Search page, as are those of his close family members. I know one was an error by the census-taker, but not the others. There are also numerous other people who do not belong, and I cannot remove.
I only come to Family Search about once a year. No point. I'm really successful on My Heritage and Ancestry, but Family Search is riddled with errors and is very user-unfriendly.
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Kia Orana, Warm greetings😊
I have found over the years, using Familysearch, that I have been busy trying to merge my great parents names and ID numbers - quite a few times, because some people thought, they were doing me a favour? by giving them new ID numbers and additional names or estimate date of birth and trying to build genealogy tree? I have been discouraged but I will continue,to merge or write a story, to explain, the errors? So, my family who are doing their tree don't get discouraged. Please,To those, that just put "names" with new ID numbers and have no resources to prove it's correct? Please, don't confuse everyone, that's using this site, like myself. I have photos, documents, and live in the "homestead" to prove, that, they are my ancestors.
Meitaki maata, thank you in advance
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