FHL Lookup Service inconsistencies

9198

• The operator who deals with a request may not look for the record in the right place, or may find an incorrect record (having failed to read carefully the request); anyway, any reply sent to FHLRemoteAccess@FamilySearch.org will be ignored so you can't help them to tweak the search and correct their mistakes.
• Sometimes you explicitly ask for a record transcription, and somebody will randomly reply that they can't share the image and that you should send another request asking for a transcription (!).
• Two requests for the same kind of records of the same set of images can get random responses: somebody will provide an image or a transcription, somebody will tell you that they don't offer any transcription.
• And so on...

Gail Swihart Watson

Depending on what you are looking at, you may be able to go directly to the owner of the record and ask them. That almost always entails paying a fee, but if you are going to a county court house, the fee could be small. I have had very good experiences when I call up a county clerk and let them know I am looking for marriage info, deeds, birth records, you name it. Edit: let me clarify birth records. Modern birth certificates may be avaailable through county, but they are officially available through the Departments of Health in each state. The birth records I am referring to are the registers which exist in MANY states as early as a decade prior to the Civil War. In Virginia, birth and death registers began in 1853. THESE registers are not always visible in FamilySearch for whatever reason, but the county owns them and can provide digital images or paper copies for a fee.

Paul W

@9198

The authority these volunteers have in providing you with the information requested will always by liable to an interpretation of the "rules". For example, if you request a copy of an image that is part of a restricted material collection, I would consider you to be fortunate to receive it - as many volunteers would believe providing this could be a breach of the (record custodian's) conditions that has made the (whole) film unavailable for viewing. I suppose others would see no harm in you being provided with a copy of just an individual page, or entry.

I would advise not to push too hard over any issues of inconsistency - in case FamilySearch decides to tighten-up on the current (patchy) provision of such material, and rules it must be completely stopped!

9198

Now they are always responding with the same copy-paste text, not even checking the image availability. They are not providing images, nor transcriptions, so the service is pretty useless nowadays.

And what about images which are only available at a Family Center? If there are no centers where I live, what should I do?

Paul W

Perhaps other regular users of this service could report their recent experiences. I has always troubled me when I have read comments about the inconsistent quality of service received from volunteers handing "look ups". Hopefully, the "demands" of a minority of FamilySearch patrons has not led to the feared, current "copy-paste" responses now being received.