Obvious mis-translations from original sources.
I have found several very obvious, obviously incorrect translations of original documents of the one surname -after just a few minutes searching.
One letter is missing from the name, which is very obviously in the documents shown on your site.
The surname is "Granroth", with the 'r' definitely included in the name.
Your translation shows it as "Granoth".
Why?
This does not give me confidence in your site as my ancestors would not come up in searches with this error.
I have provided just one citation below…there are more that are incorrect as you will find.
"Finland, Church Census and Pre-Confirmation Books, 1600-1916", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLJ1-CG7L : Sat Jul 20 15:01:57 UTC 2024), Entry for Michel Granoth, from 1855 to 1861.
Would you kindly tell me how these errors occured - and when they will be corrected by?
Thanks for your help, Lorraine
Answers
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@Lorraine88 if you click through into the image you should be able to edit the index information yourself.
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@Lorraine88 According to the FamilySearch Blog ( https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/familysearch-year-in-review-2025 ), FamilySearch has over 22,700,000,000 searchable records. These were created by hundreds of thousands of volunteers over the past fifty years working first from paper copies of microfilm images, then the microfilms themselves, and now from digital images. This required squinting at interesting handwriting styles in multiple languages and doing their best to be as accurate as possible. But errors due to clerks with terrible handwriting, fuzzy images, and volunteers not necessarily being experts in the languages of the records has allowed errors to creep in the resulting indexes.
This is true for all indexes of genealogical records on any website you are going to use. If you want perfect transcriptions you are out of luck since you are never going to find them anywhere. You will need to give up using any searchable database and just stick with the original records.
However, if you want to keep using searchable databases of transcriptions, then a vital genealogical skill is to learn the characteristics and quirks of each record set you search and its search engine. You also need to view the database as a finding aid and go from the index to the original record whenever possible to make sure you are getting accurate information from the record.
For example, you have learned that Granroth is mis-transcribed as Granoth from this record:
How did this happen? Apparently the indexer and reviewer both blinked at the wrong time. But however it happened, the important thing is that you still found the record! (I would not be confident from this record that the first name as written here is really Michel as transcribed. It could easily be Mickal.)
Fortunately, the search engine at FamilySearch uses a fuzzy routine which often picks up possible misspellings. Unfortunately, searching for Granroth in the collection this record is found in does not pick up Granoth. However, a wild-card search does:
Admittedly this works easiest if you have additional information about the person and can add this as I have added his birth year here.
Regarding corrections to the indexes, FamilySearch just does not have the resources to do these. However, they have taken a great leap of faith in their users competence and trustworthiness and have developed a system to allow us to correct errors as long as there is an image we can work from as Mandy mentioned above. The editing system has a few bugs and some days it is a struggle to use it but considering its complexity, it works pretty well. If you want to fix the spelling on the record you refer to, go to the indexed record and click on View Original Document or Edit:
Either will bring you to the index editor. Click on the pencil edit icon next to the section of information you want to correct, in this case the name, correct the information, then save the update.
However, keep in mind that indexes are to contain what the record shows, not what we think the record should have been. If this record did not have that R in his name, then it should not be put in the index.
Another important item to remember, is that now you have found this record despite the incorrect spelling you should attach it to his profile in Family Tree. Then no one will ever have to search for it again. All they will have to do is go to his profile in Family Tree and it will be there.
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