Incorrect Name on FamilySearch
My grandfather, Walter Ashby (1874-1953), had no middle name. His son, Walter Bernard Ashby (1911-2002) was my father. I would love to get this corrected.
Best Answer
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@SharonDorland, I'm not subscribed to any of FS's emails, so I don't know which "campaign" you're talking about, but they're all computer-generated, usually based on something in Family Tree. Sometimes when they get things wrong, it's because of an error in the Tree (which you can find and fix), but sometimes, there's nothing actually wrong in the Tree: the bot overgeneralized or phrased things too generically.
(Yes, that's when they get things wrong, not if.)
The problem in the Tree may not be something that anybody entered: it could be a Record Hint that needs to be dismissed as "not a match". (The whole hinting system is overall brilliant, but sometimes the specifics make it look rather dumb.)
To check what's in the Tree for your father and grandfather, click the FamilySearch logo at the top of this page. On the resulting new tab, click Family Tree and choose Tree. Unfortunately, there's no telling any more who the resulting chart will be centered on (because FS made a change: instead of using your home person as the home person, it puts in whichever profile you worked on most recently), but you can force it to behave by either clicking the "home" icon at the top right (if it's available), or by clicking Recents and then the tree-stublet to the right of your name. This will show you a graphical representation of what's entered into the Tree as your family.
To make changes to the Tree, choose a person and go to his or her details page. To do that, click the name to bring up the "person card", and click Person in the bottom gray strip.
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Answers
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Where in FamilySearch's vast sprawl do you see the error?
If it's in the Family Tree, you can fix that yourself. It's a collaborative open-edit endeavor.
If it's in an index, you may be able to correct the names and dates, but only if the record custodian allows index corrections and the image that the index entry is based on is available to you on FamilySearch. Otherwise, you can console yourself with the fact that you found the record despite the error.
If it's in a third-party index that FamilySearch simply has a copy of, such as FindAGrave or the U.S. Public Records collection, then you'll need to contact the third party for any corrections.
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Hi. It was an email from Family Search saying there was information about my great grandfather. The information was incorrect. I have been trying to correct this every time I see it.
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I'm not sure there is any error, at least with people existing. It appears there were at least 3 Walter Ashbys who were born around 1874 and died in 1953. It appears one was born in Iowa (died in Colorado); the second was born in Nebraska (died in California) and the third was born and died in Kentucky. Two do not seem to have middle names.
Knowing this, it may help you weed out any supporting sources that are attached in error. Public records such as directories, social security, voting records, etc cannot be fixed. Also, it is entirely possible your grandfather decided to "have" a middle name during parts of his life. I have seen that with my husband's relatives. You need to make the necessary edits on your grandfather's person page AND to the sources so that he is not mixed up with the others.
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