Date of Birth or Date of Death

Russel486

How do i change or amend a date of birth of date of death in an existing record where there is either no information or just a year listed and I have evidence of the correct or full date.

Áine Ní Donnghaile

It depends on the record. If it an index without an image, then the index cannot be edited.

Dennis J Yancey

what do you mean by "record"?
are you talking about a profile in FamilySearch Family Tree
or some index to some primary source record - and if so where / what link?

Julia Szent-Györgyi

As Áine and Dennis have pointed out, it depends on what you mean by "record", and what part of FamilySearch's (rather vast and varied) website you're on.

The word "record" is particularly overused in genealogy, not just on FamilySearch, but the primary meaning here is the one Áine applied: a record is an index entry, that is, a computer-readable reference to an event or document. There are several ways to interface with FS's database of these indexed historical records; one is to go to the main FS site (for example by clicking the tree at the top left of the page here), click Search, and choose Records. You can search by name, or you can narrow things down right at the start by choosing a place or collection and then search by name.

As Áine wrote, some indexes on FS are user-correctable, others are not. This is a complex topic by itself; if it turns out to be what you're trying to do, I'll be happy to talk your ear off ::ahem, I mean:: go into more detail.

Another thing that sometimes gets called a "record" is a person's Family Tree profile page.

Any user of FamilySearch can edit nearly anything on the collaborative Family Tree, so if this is where you'd like to correct those births and deaths, you're in luck: you can. Just click the pencil (edit) button next to the conclusion you want to change.

Those are the two major parts of the FS sprawl, but there are many others; if you meant something different, please explain in more detail, and people will try to help.

Charles McElwee

If you are meaning to update the indexed data of a document, for instance, updating the burial record that only has a death year listed and amending it to have the entire death date on the record, that is improper. Indexed data should not be edited to contain information that is not on the image of the document itself. All of the inferences should be made on the Tree Person, not on any record-transcriptions, or indexed data. Transcriptions should remain true to the images the data is taken from. Conclusions should be recorded, and can be updated, only on the Tree person page.