Bug Report: Editing of Indexed Record Get Corrupted
Or maybe this is just expected behavior. In any event the auto-standardization routine is apparently hovering in the background and can corrupt edits.
First let me say that I don't edit records very often. There are just too many of them that need fixing. I've always taken the position that as long as an indexed record got people to the actual source, it didn't matter too much that there were glaring errors in the index because, of course, they would ignore the index and work from the source. However, now that a person's detail page can be edited directly in the new source linker, I get concerned that information that looks OK in the index but is wrong will replace correct, although maybe incomplete, information on the person's detail page. So I have doing some editing to try and protect correct information.
Second, some historical background is needed to understand the situation I ran across.
The registers for Stord prestgeld (parish a.k.a. clerical district) covers three sogn (parishes a.k.a. local parishes a.k.a. churches), namely Stord sogn, Fitjar sogn, and Valestrand sogn. The record never states which of the three sub-parishes a christening, marriage, or burial took place at. All that can be known from the record is that an event took place in Stord, but not whether it was Stord Kyrkje (church), Fitjar Kyrkje (church), or Valestrand Kyrkje, or Kyrjkegard (cemetery) depending on the event.
Now to proceed.
I was attaching a burial record to a gentleman in the source linker:
Knowing that these records do not state the cemetery, that the appearance of "Valestrand Kyrkjegard" here was completely due to the errors of the auto-standardization routine which have still not been corrected, and being concerned that someone would add this more complete but completely wrong information to the record, I decided this was an index I should correct.
Going to the record, I see this:
Here part of the problem is that the Event Place (Original) is also wrong. It should have been "Stord (covering Stord, Fitjar, and Valestrand), Hordaland, Norge." or just "Stord, Hordaland, Norway."
Clicking Edit, I go to the editing form:
It was rather interesting to see that the auto-standardized version that appears in the index and in the source linker does not appear here. Clicking the edit icon by Burial brings me here:
where I can correct the place and the municipality. These are what need to be corrected for every record in this particular microfilm.
Upon saving and returning to the record, I discover that the auto-standardization routine replaced what I had correctly entered with its own, incorrect version.
Refreshing the source linker shows the error was transferred there:
Stord Kirke is just as wrong as Valestrand Kyrkegard because the record does not say any such thing. It does not say which sogn/parish/church this event was at.
This bug or unintended consequence in the handling of edits makes it impossible to correct the index and increases the risk that incorrect information in the index will be added through the source linker to a person's detail page.
Comments
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As Julia indicated in this thread and as Gordon indicates above, we could use a Group dedicated to discussing issues and needed improvements in the new Edit-Everything option. We have a good track record chatting directly with the responsible programmers in groups such as the New Person Page group.
@Stephanie V. and @Maile L could you please help us get this idea rolling?
Thanks.
Another thread with references to some of the issues with the Edit-Everything page: https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/comment/534464#Comment_534464
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@Stephanie V. said that the possibility of having a group for the editing tool is being discussed. In the mean time, I am gathering and passing on your concerns.
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