Problems with Austrian Empire-Galacia Roman Catholic Records
I've attached over 60,000 sources this year because of my slow knee replacement surgery recovery and I've seen hundreds of Roman Catholic digitized sources where the Husband's surname is erroneously given as the wife's maiden name. So the child's name, for example, will be Barbara Bodziony, but the Father's name will be given as Joannes Gondek and the mother's name will be given as Marianna Gondek. It doesn't confuse me because I did microfilm research using the original records and entered the correct surnames into familysearch many years ago, but I'm concerned about the novices who think everything on familysearch is perfect. Are you aware of this problem and can anything be done to fix it?
I'm also suddenly seeing 3-4 different place names for the same birth event. I understand 2 different place names because the child may be born in a small village, but then be baptized in the church which is located in a different place--but now I'm seeing a flood of additional place names for the same child's name and birthdate with matching parent names and house number--including some place names that don't even make sense---almost like a con artist is getting paid by the birth event record, so they are making up place names.... its actually a bit creepy....is someone aware of this problem and can it be fixed?
Answers
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I believe it's a bug, probably connected to the new index editor, but I'm having a hard time getting the Community to cough up the previous mentions of it.
Any chance of a link to an example? "Galicia" does not appear in any collection titles, so I don't know where you're searching.
It occurs to me that this is probably a manifestation of the same error: https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/152422/1870-u-s-census-incorrect-geographical-place-standardization
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This is a link to an example of the erroneous father's surname source: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6VQG-69QZ?cid=fs_copy
One Example of duplicate source with erroneous place name: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6KS3-3X6Y?cid=fs_copy
If you do a google search on that event place which starts with ROHY, it comes up with nothing--that place doesn't exist.
The original place name in the source says Rogi, Poland which is correct, based on other sources. Because the event took place between 1772-1918, I would enter it as:
Rogi, Bezirk Neusandez, Galicia, Austria
But I've recently seen hundreds of Roman Catholic sources which have strange place names which don't exist when you do a google search. I've been doing research in this very small region of Galicia for almost 20 years, and I've actually been to many of these villages, including Rogi.
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@N Tychonievich at least some of these appear to be placename standardization algorithm issues. For example, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6KS3-3X6Y returns this index:
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@FialaK The issues with the Poland Church Books have been reported. No expectation as to when we might expect things to look better. Sorry for the frustration the errors cause.
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placename standardization algorithm … the gift that keeps on giving
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Julia, I'm not sure if this is what FialaK was talking about ("I'm suddenly seeing 3-4 different place names for the same birth event.") but maybe it is. How can one person be baptized on the same day with the same parents and living at the same house but be living in 3 different locations (Bialostockie, Warszawskie, Podkarpackie).
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And it isn't just birth/baptism records. It's also happening in marriage records. There are multiple marriage records for this same marriage, which took place in the ancient wood church in Czarny Potok, but this specific source lists this random tiny village as the event place. That same random tiny village has been appearing as the event place in many of the duplicate birth/baptism records I'm seeing. The random village isn't even in the same geographical proximity as the actual event--so where did the record come from?
Here's the same random tiny village appearing as the event place in a death record source for a death which took place in Czarny Potok. I've seen this same random village listed as the event place in hundreds of duplicate sources for birth/baptism, death, and marriage records.
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@FialaK, what's wrong with those records? (Links rescued from the mangler: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6VQN-832H?cid=fs_copy and https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6VQF-VD9J?cid=fs_copy.) The images are FSC/AL only for me, so I can't see if things were misindexed or what.
(Avoid giving links their own line in the Community. It chews them up if you do.)
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Event PlaceCzchów, Powiat brzeski, Krakowskie, Polska
Julia, this is a rogue event place that I've seen in hundreds of duplicate sources, such as this one. Czchow is a small village which isn't near any of the actual events. I've seen it in marriage, death, and birth/baptism records.
And I don't understand this directive--please clarify....thanks!
(Avoid giving links their own line in the Community. It chews them up if you do.)
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@FialaK If you look at the URL in your post/comment it has several "%3A" where there should be a colon. If you (or we) click on it to try to view what you want us to see, we see only an error message. I try to put a word or more before/after the URL. Or just don't hit the return/enter key after posting a URL.
Example: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6VQF-VD9J Test
Putting a word after the URL stops it from corrupting. If I post the same URL on a line by itself
then the %3A villain returns, and the URL does not work.
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I figured out the cause of one of the two problems I recently reported because the visual image of the original Roman Catholic record was available on-line for one of the problem sources. In the original Roman Catholic birth/baptismal record, the priest wrote that the child's name was: Joannes Waligora
Then he wrote that the parent's names were Mathias and Catharina Koral. He didn't rewrite the father's surname because he's writing in a small space and maybe he's trying to save ink? Plus "obviously" the father's name is Mathias Waligora. Unfortunately, it wasn't "obvious" to whoever indexed the source because the record says the parent's names are Mathias Koral and Catharina Koral. I understand that untrained volunteers did the indexing of the records and there wasn't adequate quality control because it was a mammoth undertaking, so there probably is no fix now for the hundreds of erroneous records.
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