Miami, Kansas, United States is not the same as Miami, Linn, Kansas, United States
The 1885 Miami County, Kansas State Census can apparently be entered in at least two different ways.
A
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSQS-FSRH-P
displays Image 39 of 127, with a page display header [shown in Firefox Web Developer Tools as: document: Name] " Kansas, State Census, 1885 › Miami › Marysville Township" that makes sense and is Correct, This link is to page "26". The first page of this set, image 1 of 127 shows the Township. (There are 3 sheets per "page", or 1.5 images per page). The last Image, 127 confirms the County of Miami.
I was interested in the Ed Cummins family. I was able to edit the incorrect Event Place "Miami, Linn, Kansas, United States" and changed each person's Event Place to "Marysville Township, Miami, Kansas, United States" and successfully added the records to their tree.
Or B, (which is also the new link !)
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QL6N-3V6L
arrives at Image 345 of 684 with the page display header [document: Name] Miami. Census 1885, the same image as before, and my corrected Event places still correct.
The first image of Marysville Township in this image compilation is 307 of 684. Image 5 is ambiguous but seems to be in Miami county, Image 6 Shows Miami County. Indexing on images 5 & 7 have No Event place that I can tell.
BUT their neighbors on image 345 of 684 are still incorrect with the Census Place: Miami, Linn, Kansas, United States
The problem is that Miami Township in Linn County is NOT the same place as Miami County; their centers are 45 miles apart. I checked the following sample set of images within the larger group of 684 Images, Miami. Census 1885 for the Census Place: assigned to the first index entry on each image page as follows:
Image 49 Miami, Linn, Kansas, United States
Image 149 Miami, Linn, Kansas, United States
Image 250 None
Image 349 None
Image 449 None
Image 550 Miami, Linn, Kansas, United States
Image 650 None
I did NOT check the actual images that these are all in Miami County, as in these documents the clerk did not record that information on every page. It would appear to be so from image 3, the title "Volume 170" catalogued here without the volume number https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/koha:292166
and image 683 which shows the County as Miami.
The simple solution would be to bulk assign the collection Miami. Census 1885 the Place name Miami, Kansas, United States instead of the incorrect Miami, Linn, Kansas, United States. I would hope that users who have made the corrected edit with also the correct Township would not lose those edits.
The better solution with additional work, would be to assign the townships also, as appears to be the case with A.
This problem is not contained to this set. From this compilation: https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/koha:292166
The next volume, Miami Co. - Townships O-W initially linked to here Film # 007841208, on image 49, the first entry James Stephens, when searched [James Stephens / Residence Place Kansas, United States, 1885 - 1885 / Birth place Ohio, United States 1823-1825 /
Shows under Events, Census 1885 / Miami, Linn, Kansas, United States
the Link
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6BKP-XHVL?lang=en
The image 49 of 692 on the original printed page clearly shows Township of Osage, County of Miami. Within the individual Events, there is no mention of the county, thus I conclude there is a "hidden" to me the user, a field with the incorrect generic place name.
The second James Stephens is likely the same person in the Agriculture Schedule (image 76 of 692, same township and county as the first entry), with no specific place name but clearly still the global incorrect place name.
Checking the Wiki Kansas, State Census, 1885 the link there to
and Miami lists a dozen townships to browse. Marysville Township takes me to a set of 127 Images and Image 39 has the Ed Cummins family as in A above.
I arrived at this problem finding a family in the larger set that I wanted to determine their residence at the township level, and therefore have more confidence in being able to join one family created from a marriage forward, to his his birth family and parents; the difficulty in that a marriage record has a different name for the father than the father of the birth family.
Thank you.
Answers
-
Thank you for providing such a comprehensive explanation of your experience. Your examples effectively demonstrate the various ways images associated with #7841209 can be accessed, as well as the differences in display across platforms.
Example A is what is seen in the legacy (old) film viewer, where the header references waypoints originally created to guide users to specific counties and townships.
Example B pertains to the updated Image Viewer, which retrieves data from the new storage platform. In this version, waypoints are not utilized, the film is not divided by township, and the metadata for the entire image group is identified only as Miami, Kansas (the county).
For this collection, it appears that the AI was not configured to extract township names, particularly since, as you mentioned, these are not recorded on every page. When only Miami, Kansas is available as the event location, the standardization bug arises as the system attempts to align the place name with a three-level jurisdiction. On pages lacking indexed event locations, the system defaults to the group name "Miami, Kansas"; otherwise, it proceeds with standardization efforts.
In summary, this is a documented error observed in multiple collections. I will ensure that this collection is added to the list of those needing attention.
1
