Corrupted census document

LegacyUser

David Wynn said: I couldn't see a way to include images if I filed this as a "problem". But I would guess this is an issue specific to this one document. As shown, there is only one Dwane in this family.

Here's a snap of the original census document:


Um. What happened?

LegacyUser

Lundgren said: Thanks for letting us know.

I let the data team know. If it isn't wide spread then they may not fix it.

If it is a wide spread problem they will need to take action.

LegacyUser

Jordi Kloosterboer said: Lol fail. :P

LegacyUser

David Wynn said: Why would they not fix it? Looks like it should be repairable by hunting down the multiple entries, and deleting two of them. Clearly the original document does not support all three.

Or put such things on the list of things that should be repairable in the future. Classify this as multiple index entries for only a single entry in the original document.

LegacyUser

Lundgren said: There are billions of records. We don't have staffing to correct all of the errors.

This could be something that users could correct in the future like name errors today.

I'm sure all of us had a list of names someplace that we wanted corrected. I went and did mine as soon as I could.

LegacyUser

David Wynn said: Nifty. Not sure what you're referring to as far as things you corrected. The issue that this conversation is about is not something that patrons can correct. At least not at this point. But great for you if you could correct your list from the data side.

LegacyUser

Lundgren said: Sorry if I was not clear.

I do not have access to edit records any more than any other user on the site does. I corrected spelling and transcription errors when that feature recently became available to all of us.

Today, you can correct spelling or transcription errors in names. We could not do that for years. We just had to keep a list, mental or otherwise of where the mistakes were.

Today we users cannot correct places, dates or record issues like the one noted in this thread.

For now, we can just make a list of where these are. Perhaps one day we will be able to correct these the way we can now correct names. If that day comes then you will probably remember this record and go in and fix it.

Familysearch will correct errors that impact large numbers of records, but generally familysearch does not fix one off issues like a transcription error in a single record as they do not have the staff to do that.

LegacyUser

Paul said: Lundgren

You write: "Familysearch will correct errors that impact large numbers of records".

If only this was common practice. Many errors, often effecting many thousands of records, have been frequently reported without any indication they might ever be rectified.

LegacyUser

Lundgren said: As I've seen some and I've passed them along to the data team. I've seen some corrected. Depending on the problem, it may be difficult to correct quickly.

As you encounter errors that affect large numbers of records it is helpful to report the problem in a new post.

LegacyUser

Paul said: Thank you for your response. Yes, I have / do.