Maiden name or not
I am reviewing and the Father's name is listed as John McIntyre Roberts and the mother as Rachel Ferguson Roberts. The indexer listed the Father's given name as John McIntyre and surname as Roberts, but on the Mother, they listed given name as Rachel and surname as Ferguson Roberts. There is nothing to indicate that Ferguson was the maiden name and my understanding is that when unsure, you should put it under given name. Should I correct it?
Also, on fields where the indexer and reviewer have different info, does a third party then review those fields to make a determination? I was an indexer years ago on the 1940 census and thought I had read that, but I'm not sure if they still do it that way now.
Answers
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If the indexer put the surname as Ferguson Roberts, leave it, unless there is evidence to the contrary. Ferguson could be a maiden name, just as it could be a middle name.
If the indexer put say, 1850, and you see 1860, correct it. Web Indexing reviewing is the first part of the review process before a project is able to be searched. I believe that there are two more reviews before a project goes live.
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Heather, I agree that if there's no indication that Ferguson is the maiden name ("A maiden name was often indicated by the words "née" or "born as." A maiden name may also have been written in parentheses."), then you would put it into the given name field. I've seen children given their mother's surname as a middle name, so Ferguson could very well be a middle name. You have no way of knowing which it is, so it should be entered into the given name field.
Back with the 1940 census, we were still doing two indexers for the same batch and an arbitrator would compare the two and correct what needed correcting. The review process is different. There's one indexer and one reviewer. A second reviewer only looks at the batch if the first reviewer found more than 20% errors. This help article doesn't give that number (the people at Family Search have given us that number) but it says, "If the reviewer changes a certain number of entries, the batch is sent through review again to help ensure quality and accuracy." If a reviewer doesn't find that many errors, then it won't go through another review. https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/what-does-a-reviewer-do-in-indexing
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