DGS number shared by multiple items
Hello,
I have noticed the full-text icon appearing on many items in the FamilySearch Catalog. This is wonderful!! However, quite a few times when I clicked on this icon, I was taken to an item or document that was NOT the one I was looking at in the catalog.
For example, scroll down and click on the full-text icon for this item:
https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/402506
Instead of taking you to the pages for this book, it takes you to the Tax assessments for Green County, Arkansas. When I searched the DGS number in the FamilySearch Catalog (in this case, no. 7811611), there are NINE items with the same DGS number! And they ALL have the full-text icon and they ALL take you to the same Green County, AR document, even though only one of those nine items is correct.
I have noticed this with other items in the catalog as well. It looks like the DGS number should have an "item [number]" to differentiate. I hope this can be fixed soon!
Thank you!
Adrianne Erickson
Comments
-
@Adrianne Erickson Many DGS contain multiple different projects. When the operators were microfilming, they continued using a roll of film until it was full. A small parish might not have sufficient records to use a roll, so the operator would continue using the same film at the next church or even the next town.
It's not an error to be fixed although there is a project in the works to break apart longer runs to make it easier for us to see older records. More recent records are often restricted for reasons of privacy. When a film contains older AND newer records, the entire film must be restricted. That will be changing as the project moves forward.
1
