"United States, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918" Event Date Error
For Arthur Charles Kreagloh https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/sources/L2LF-91V and others, the Record https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:W495-YQ6Z has a nonsense Event Date of 29 November 1918, This is an incorrect amalgamation of his birth date "29 November 1896" and the year 1918. When one looks at the image, the Event Date SHOULD be June 5, 1917 (the date from the right side in the image. In the two older records for Arthur, now both flagged "This record was a duplicate and has been retired. We recommend using the most current copy." the event date is shown as "from 1917 to 1918".
Both are equally annoying and are easily corrected during the attachment process by any user who views the image first. The date may be important since there were at least two major registration dates, about a year apart (my recollection, I am not an expert on WW I registration). In Arthur's case. " 29 November 1918" is real nonsense as the war was by then over.
The example I give above is only the latest of a dozen or so that I have seen the last several months.
Here is one that I found Jun 30, 2025 William Frederick Kleinschmidthttps://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/sources/L1Z5-VMW
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:W673-BMZM
His Event Date is shown as 27 July 1918, but should have been 12 Sept 1918. I see that I can edit this record, but will leave it as it is for now. It appears to me that some sort of batch processing incorrectly joined two or more unrelated fields, an error that was not caught in time.
Best Answer
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@FLQR Thank you for finding this and reporting! This is a new issue and affects every record in the WWI Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 Collection. While the birth dates are correct, the registration dates are showing the day/month of birth. We have reported it to the engineers. Please be patient for updates.
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Answers
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The birthdate: I suspect you caught a one off indexer error. Good eye. Confirm correct date in the vitals for your PID, link the source and you're good.
On the Record Date you mention - for the sake of expediency, I suspect this has to do with the Indexing instructions used for this record set. On the WW1 draft cards, one has to scroll to the second (back of card) image to see the actual registration date. This is filled in ~80-90% of the time but not always. To expedite the indexing process the record date is likely auto filled with your noted: "from 1917 to 1918" - a standard form date that is both general but accurate.
Remember, the Indexing process is to get the historical record quickly into a computer searchable database for the primary and maybe secondary person on the record - close enough that you as the human can review the image and decide to attach it to the suggested person. Indexing will not pull out every last detail that a careful review may find.
When reviewing sources, I will update the Event details on my PID with both the home address of the individual, as well as his occupation if noted, and the correct Month/Year of the residence (registration date). Yes, this will have to be done manually.
Bonus - the WW1 & WW2 draft registration cards are a favorite of mine for showing a middle name that may not show on (many or any) other sources. Also: Spelling of the name - with my favorite reason statement: "By his own signature"
FYI - on indexed Death Certificates (US) - you will find that the Birth Date is indexed as a single year (rounded up). IF you go and look at the image, you have a 50/50 chance of seeing the complete D/M/Y of birth!
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This is not a one off indexer error, I have seen it ten's of times the past several months. I did look at the indexing details, but my expertise is not yet good enough to be sure which date (birth or event on the back side) needed to be edited.
I agree that they are a great resource for primary information, though the written birth year is often off by one year from other good records. Was that a math problem for many?
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@FLQR I've seen quite a few lately where the date of registration has been replaced with the date of birth, in the year of registration. Something has gone awry.
@SerraNola Is this glitch on your list, please? Thanks.
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Áine Ní Donnghaile, I'm working with @SerraNola and we have reported it to the engineers.
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