What to do with indexed records with zero information?

LegacyUser

David Wynn said: I've seen things like this too often lately. Just wondering why these would even get indexed, and what we're expected to do with them. For the convenience of seeing the information, I've aligned this "person" with an individual in the family (in this case, the spouse). Nothing about the indexed record shows such a familial connection.

(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1...)

As shown, the record image is unavailable, so I have no way to review the document myself. The person has no name (well, "UNKNOWN" -- so, nothing userful). There is no indicated connection to anyone else on the document. Gender and all other information is unknown. Essentially -- no data at all has been recorded to match this index entry to, well, anyone.

Is there any way for the programmers to sweep through and purge out such entries that provide no information, no relational connections, and no way to identify what person this might even match to?

LegacyUser

Jordi Kloosterboer said: I know with the 1939 Register in England, the ones that are UNKOWN are the ones that are protected since they are of people still living. But yes, I think sometimes there are unknowns that should not be included. (like showing parents that are UNKOWN in a marriage record). I don't think a computer could be able to differentiate between good UNKOWNs versus bad ones. Therefore, we need to enhance the edit section and allow to hide records that are unknown. It would have to require some validation though.

LegacyUser

Slotbuddy said: I don't know the answer to your question, but I can tell you the reason it was indexed. At the start of every batch, support has inserted a statement to the effect that indexers are to index every name on the batch they receive even if there is no other information except the name. I'm sorry that I can't quote you the exact wording right off the top of my head, but if you just go on the site as if you were going to index a batch (you can always just return the batch if you don't want to index it) you will see what I mean.

What you are expected to do with this information after it has been indexed, I have no idea. However, if you are finding these things, it is not the fault of the indexer, they are merely following the instructions given to them by support.