How has this Gateshead, England record been made to appear it relates to a Philippines collection?
Is the clue in the change log of the profile to which this source has been attached?
The record is not found in a search of the collection, but the URL appears to have been changed to make it appear this way. Would someone please explain what has been done here. Is it possibly an act of vandalism, causing the original collection relating to the source to appear as it does now?
Answers
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Adding this final screenshot here, in case the other three disappear when I attempt to edit my previous post! It confirms there is no record of a John Ramshew (sic) in this collection.
Incidentally, I deliberately clipped the screenshot of the change log (above), as it shows details of the user involved in these changes, revealing which I believe is not allowed under the Code of Conduct. The source was created / changes made on 12 May 2025, though.
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Something very strange here Paul. That DGS, #4039679, returns very recent Civil Registration records in Leyte. The dates are so recent that they should be restricted for the privacy of the living.
@SerraNola Could you please take a look? The description shows the DGS as 20th century records from the Philippines, but the contents are 18th century English records. Thanks.
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Apart from the confusion caused by this apparent change of URL (and the issue raised by Áine), what I find worrying is the possibility of URLs being maliciously changed, whereby we could get linked to a "dodgy" website. Is there a flaw here, which could be exploited by someone with nefarious intentions, or am I letting my imagination run away with me? Regardless, if there is no simple answer as to what is going on here, yes, I would be grateful to @SerraNola for passing this on for further investigation.
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Paul, I suspect it's a technical error rather than malicious intent or vandalism. I know there were some tech issues over the weekend, through at least yesterday. I don't know that this is connected to that same tech problem.
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@Paul W I don't think there's any intentional efforts to mess up these records. DGS 4039679, containing records of the Gateshead Bishops Transcripts was created in 2022 and incorrectly labeled with creator and archival custodian of Ormoc, Leyte, Philippines which as you know transferred over to the catalog and Index Details page:
In the old viewer the film has an index attached, but in the new viewer there is no index. Searching by this film number yields no results.
DGS 4046486, 4046495, 4046505, and 4046506 is the original filming of the Gateshead Bishops Transcripts and shows the correct creator and custodian:
Here is Catalog Link to these films. They do not have any indexes attached. They are correctly placed in this collection which as you can see has lost indexes and is not searchable:
Hope that all makes sense. I will send this to the appropriate team to try to set things back in order.
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Thank you so much for checking out - and for your reassurance that nothing "sinister" was involved! The time and effort you are taking on behalf of the community is truly appreciated.
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One more thing….
I did not find the correct DGS matching the description of the Philippine records in the catalog:
That's still a mystery.
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