How do I correct a misspelled name?
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How do I correct a misspelled name? It isn't even close to my great great Grandmother's last name. Her name was McKeon and It is wrong on the page.
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The record should be indexed as written. If the name is written incorrectly by the enumerator, it should stay that way.
When you attach the record to a profile the correction can be made in the profile source list. But I urge caution: I have encountered many spelling corrections that are incorrect; a prior contributor got confused and conflated unrelated families, munging all their names to fit.
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So if a transcriber spelled a name wrong because script is hard to read, we are to leave the record as it?? Seems wrong as the misspelled name cant be found by others. My grandfathers name is spelled wrong in a marriage license by the transcriber. Shouldnt I be able to request a correction by the database?
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Unfortunately, unlike commercial websites (like Find My Past) FamilySearch does not have the resources to correct the huge amount of incorrectly transcribed records that are reported. In some cases, especially if there is an image attached to the source, you can make the correction yourself. Otherwise, add the source to the correct ID in Family Tree, then show the incorrectly recorded name as an Alternate Name.
Sadly, another user would still not be able to pick it up from a Search at https://www.familysearch.org/search/, but should be able to identify "a" and "b" as being the same individual in using Family Tree's FIND function.
You are not alone here. Many of us would wish FamilySearch could allocate resources (say a large group of volunteers) to be able to make corrections, but it chooses to use such valuable time on other projects, at present.
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@LouMorgan, the transcriber's errors can and should be corrected. It's the enumerator's or clerk's errors that should not be changed (although the capability exists for that, too).
That is, if the indexer (which is a synonym for transcriber) misread Simon as Limon, but it's a correctable field, by all means fix it. But if the clerk misheard or had a brain freeze or something and wrote Simon instead of Samuel, leave it as Simon and add a note about the error when you attach the record to Samuel's profile.
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Some great comments have been made regarding how to deal with names that are misspelled in indexed records. Were you aware that we have a couple of Knowledge Articles in our knowledge base that discuss what can be done at FamilySearch when you find misspelled names or other errors in indexed records? Please take a look at the following articles. The first describes how to correct a record if corrections have been possible for a specific record.
This second article explains reasons why not all collections can currently be corrected.
If you want to attach a record to Family Tree and you cannot correct the name in the actual index, you can still attach the record and edit the title of the source that is created so that it reflects the correct spelling for your grandmother's name. The instructions that allow you to edit a source are included in this last article.
Please remember that when attaching sources, even those with obvious mistakes that we cannot currently fix, our reason statements will help others to understand how we know these sources should be attached. Our details will help others to come to know common ancestors.
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