Retired duplicates and “unable to show”

Áine Ní Donnghaile

We have talked a few times about issues with the retired duplicates that often are not the same record.

This week, I’ve encountered a retired duplicate in Illinois Births and Christenings, with a link to the “most current copy.” Unfortunately, the link takes the user to an error message.

We're unable to show this record.

This record can only be displayed on certain accounts. FamilySearch must honor the agreements we have with our partners, record owners, and internal policies.

Cook County, Illinois records are restricted to view at AL/FSC. I was at my AL when the error appeared, so it’s not an issue of restricted record access.

URL of the record labeled "retired" https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V224-5KZ

URL of the inaccessible "current copy" https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NQTY-75S

I have images of the records in my files, but the guidelines for this Community indicate that I should not post them here.

I’ve recently done a great deal of Chicago-area research. I often must find the record image through the back door. One index on a for-pay genealogy website lists the FHL number while a different index sometimes has the certificate number. When I find the record image that way, while at my AL, there is almost always an index attached, but a search will not find it. The index has become invisible, possibly due to an edit – either by a human or the place algorithm.

I’m an experienced researcher and work with unindexed records regularly. That’s not the problem. The problem is that the indexes for many records have become invisible.

Can this problem please be escalated to the engineering team? I’m sure I’m not the only researcher who runs into these problems.

Thanks.

@Ashlee C. please.

LudovicMarsillach

I think I've encountered this problem while researching some early 20th century Argentine records, though perhaps the cause is other than the one ascribed here.

SerraNola

Áine Ní Donnghaile This appears to be another manifestation of disappearing records due to permission problems that engineers are already working on. The film this record originates from (4031013), has only 254 total records in search results when there are over 1800 images. This will be reported and if engineers say it is a different issue I will let you know.

Áine Ní Donnghaile

Thanks @SerraNola.

Cook County, Illinois records have been particularly hard hit by this gremlin. I hope we do not need to report each individual DGS.

Áine Ní Donnghaile

@SerraNola

I was at my local Affiliate Library yesterday working in Cook County, Illinois vital records again. And, again, I ran into the apparent disappearing permissions problem.

DGS 101277015 for 1984 deaths has 4426 images but only 1075 indexes show up in a search. https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=100&q.filmNumber=101277015 A sample record that is indexed but cannot be found in a search, the death of Lucille Niberg: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGNF-QGHP

Also DGS 101276942 for 1978 deaths has 4309 images but only 2387 indexes show in a search: https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=100&q.filmNumber=%09101276942

A sample from the unfindables - Harold Elko on Image 1434: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2MJ-C9PG

Thank you.