Is there a way to editing surnames of entire family in census records under new format?
Up until about a month ago it was fairly simple to edit the incorrect surname of an entire family in census records through a drop down list of all linked family members that would appear at the end of the edit, allowing the editor to check which family members belonged with the corrected surname. What was a simple and effective system has now disappeared and the editing system has become buggy and more cumbersome. After recent updates/changes, I find that I can edit the surname of only one family member in a census record at a time and that the highlighting of the incorrect surname often doesn't work. Is there something I am missing? Is editing an entire family's surname at once still possible. A tutorial on the changes to the system would be very helpful - does one exist?
Answers
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As far as I can tell, we've taken the chance of a correction rendering the entire household into repeats of the same person (see for example https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/comment/526377) and exchanged it for the chance of a correction causing the indexing of an image to go away entirely (see for example https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/comment/525167).
In other words, I haven't found a way to get the new correction tool to correct multiple names at once, either. It is an improvement over the old tool in many ways -- starting with the fact that it doesn't require one to choose a placename from the Places database -- but the interface is correspondingly much more complex, and it still has many bugs (such as the way it lists dozens of "unknowns" in random places).
I think the new correction tool needs its own Community Group where we can point out the problems we're having and suggest improvements. Failing that, I believe the best way to get a suggestion or complaint to the right people is to use the Feedback tab-thingy on the correction screen(s).
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What about temporarily going back to the old format in order to achieve this edit and then going back to the new format? Would that work for this?
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It would be useful to go back to the old format temporarily. As far as I know, the option to use the old format no longer exists.
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It is possible to fiddle with the URL to change from the new editor to the old, but it's not simple, and it only works if you figure out the correct field labels. I've so far only succeeded for the place and date (which are exactly the two fields where the new editor is vastly better).
What I did was to go to an entry from a collection that I know uses the old tool, click Edit, choose a field, and copy the URL. Then I replaced its identifying bits (basically the parts between "ark:/" and a question mark) with the same bits from the new-tool URL. This involved fixing the encoding of the new-style URL (i.e., I had to replace %2F with slash and %3A with colon in several places each). However, as I said, it only worked on a couple of fields; when I tried it on any of the names, it said "Sorry, editing is not currently available. FamilySearch has been notified." (This somewhat discourages me from experimenting.)
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I've still got the old editor for this. Please tell me which names you want to correct to what and on which census forms/entries and I can try fixing them for you. :)
It still exists for me, apparently. At least, I think that it does. I'm not sure why, TBH.
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There is no easy fix to get all the previously indexed U.S. Census records to work the same way in the new edit mode. The forms are each a little different in the data they provide. Just looking at a few, the formatting is not consistant under Age Date, compared to the 1950 Census.
Even though the 1950 Census records, were set up to link the same surname/household together (and now be almost fully user editable) unfortunately, as is often the case with beta projects, there are still bugs to be worked out.
One thing to note for those records that can be edited on the new system, there should only be one Principal (head highlighted in bold) per household* in the Image Index on the right. Pre-1950 U.S. Census looks like they default to all bold Principal. To edit this:
- In the IMAGE INDEX column, click on a non-head of household member's name.
- Next to Essential Information, click pencil icon to edit.
- Change Principal Name to No. Click Save Changes.
Once you only have one Head of household, it should be easier to add a single highlight for the head's surname. Then attach (by clicking on) that highlight to each subsequent member in the household. If they are all attached to the same highlight, when you edit a name attached to the highlight it ideally will change every other name attached to that highlight.
Note in the example above (1900 U.S. Census), I attached Anton's daughter to his surname but not his wife. As a result when I corrected the spelling of his surname, her's was corrected, but not his wife's.
Plus, don't make too many additions in the Image Index without refreshing your screen. They may not all be saved.
Ideally, FamilySearch would provide a video tutorial for user's on how to do this. Sorry, but that is not something I do.
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As far as I know, the correction tool that you get depends on which census (or more broadly, which collection) you're looking at. For some reason, 1920 has the old tool, while the other U.S. Censuses that I tried (1800, 1850, 1900, 1910, and of course 1950) all used the new tool.
I was able to convert from editing a name with the new tool to the old tool on the 1900 census using the 1920 census as a template for the URL.
I did not actually make an edit, to see if the household thing would work, because the 1900 census has had problems where edits sometimes turn the entire household into copies of the same person.
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The programming side is not my thing. Having written instruction manuals for computer programs at a former job a millenium ago, I was the beginner user voice for the programmers (I also caught some crazy screen typos 😆).
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