Is there any way for 1900 US Census entries we can properly list a birth month/year & age mismatch?
Is there any way for 1900 US Census entries we can properly list a birth month/year & age mismatch? To elaborate on what I mean, I'll use one example (I know of others): https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSPC-RJD
Henry Derrick, Jr.'s 1900 US Census entry lists him as being born in April 1888 but also lists him as 15 years old. The 1888 is almost certainly a typo since his documentation from the 1910s all implies an 1885 birth year for him, as does his gravestone.
(He lived from 1885 to 1939 in Wyoming County, New York, FWIW.)
Basically, for cases like his, I want to be able to put the birth month/year as is written on his 1900 US Census and his age as is written on the 1900 US Census even if they (very likely unintentionally, due to a typo) contradict each other. I wouldn't feel comfortable writing 1885 for his birth year in his 1900 US Census entry because that's not actually what it says, but at the same time, it also doesn't give an age of 12 for him but instead of gives an age of 15 for him.
Is there any way that this can actually be done?
Answers
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Yup, there is: the 1900 US Census appears to have the new "edit anything" tool now, so I was able to edit his age to say 15, while the birthdate still says April 1888.
(The tradeoff is that they still haven't worked out all of the kinks from the display process for the new tool, so it's showing the originally-indexed "son" instead of the corrected "stepson". It may be time for another post about the tool's current bugs.)
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How exactly do I access the "edit anything" tool? For instance, this woman's age in 1900 is listed as 19, not as 12: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSPC-TT7
Yet I can only edit her birth date, which I do not want, since regretfully, her 1900 US Census entry (almost certainly mistakenly*) lists her as being born in September 1888.
*She claimed birth in September 1880 during her entire life and got married in early 1901 and first got pregnant shortly afterwards. A white female getting married at age 12.5 (which is what it would have been with a September 1888 birth month) in New York state is extraordinarily unlikely. She listed her age at first marriage as 20 in the 1930 US Census, when she was already married to a different man than the one whom she got married to back in 1901 and thus had no incentive to lie about this question in 1930.
I want to edit this woman's age to 19 while keeping her birth date the same, since unfortunately that's the inconsistent result that her 1900 US Census entry shows. I want a clear explanation of where exactly the "edit anything" tool actually is, please.
I've also got a couple of additional cases which this could be done on, but first I want it to be done on this case so that I myself could personally figure out how to do it on the additional cases.
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Huh: maybe the tool is only being rolled out in stages? I clicked "Edit" on Alice's page (that you linked to) and got the new interface (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DC45-GP?view=index&personArk=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AMSPC-TT7&action=view).
I hope the link works, but if you click "Edit" and still get the old correction tool, then I'm not sure how to get to the new one. (I know how to get from new to old viewer: delete the question mark and everything after it.)
Or maybe it's a cookie or saved file? Easiest way to test that is to try it in a different browser (preferably one that you haven't used for FS in a while).
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I have now saved Alice's age to 19 twice but does it actually appear to be working?
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No, it does not appear to be working for you, but it is for me.
I assume you clicked the "save" button at the bottom when you got to this screen, right?
If so, and yet it didn't save (it still said 12 until I changed it), then I wonder if you have some sort of ad blocker or similar browser plug-in that's silently disabling the new tool. (I have no idea if that's actually a possibility, but it's the sort of thing that happens on FS frequently.)
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Yes, I did click the "save changes" button at the bottom--twice, in fact! I tried saving these changes on two separate occasions.
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I haven't a clue what could be going on here. Have you gone through the usual song-and-dance (clear all of your FS-related browsing history and saved files, make sure your browser is up to date)? What happens if you try it in a different browser?
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I will try to figure it out, but this will take time. I'll try to see what's going on.
In the meantime, could someone here please change this woman's age to 12 here? https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M3H4-D71 She's listed as age 12 and as being born in May 1898, almost certainly a typo for May 1888, which is what she herself had claimed for her entire life.
And this woman's age needs to be 16, not 27: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M3CQ-SQ2
And this woman's age needs to be 13, not 17: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MS2J-Y7L
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