Thoughts on Correcting Errors in the Records

LegacyUser

Donna June Settles said: I am working to get one on this also .Change Lilley Back to the right name Sibley. Those cursive capitol letters really are hard to read. Many names are spelled wrong because of this.type of error. Donna

LegacyUser

Mike Law said: There is an error in the LDS Temple Records for my Grandfather, Guy Law, Person ID M9J1-4G1. I believe I submitted the source material years ago. Some how my maternal grandmother Geneva Mary Ballou is now listed as Guy's other wife. NOT TRUE. Guy's only wife was Florence Lucile Austin. How can this error be corrected? Thanks, Mike Law

LegacyUser

Joe Mode said: This is frustrating indeed. I looked for hours and hours for Evan Taylor Davis, his wife Laura, and sons Shuford and Bartel in Knoxville, Tennessee, both here and at Ancestry.com. I knew Evan had died in Knoxville in 1921, Laura in 1924, and Shuford in 1935. I knew they were there in 1910, ergo it would make sense for them to be there in 1920.

So, after hours of searching I find that Familysearch and Ancestry has the family listed as Evian/Ewan T. Taylor, Laura D. Taylor, Shuford D. Taylor, and Bartel Taylor. How in God's name do you expect someone to find a family when someone has changed the surname completely? I'm not a member of Ancestry, but they have a way to make corrections, but Familysearch does not. So the mistake will throw off countless other researchers.

LegacyUser

Mary Susan (Carlson) Scott said: Very scarey about the Davis family being changed to the Taylor family.

I know that some of the FamilySearch Indexing projects have used the indices by Ancestry as the first transcription. It sounds like in the case of the Davis family that the Ancestry indexing was used in both cases. (I believe 1920 census was one of those projects merged with the Ancestry indices.)

Please, software engineers, help us use the records properly.

We really need a way to make the corrections right on the screens where the images are. This is no matter to gloss over. We cannot do the research and the subsequent temple ordinances if we can't find the records. We need to make sure that descendants can find, document and (if necessary) add notes and/or comments to correct the errors.

We're hoping and waiting for such possibilities -- sooner than later please.

LegacyUser

Joe Mode said: I was only able to find them after simply searching for "shuford" in 1920, Knoxville, his birth date, etc. When he came up, I tried his mother, then brother, with each coming up as Taylor. I knew then that this was my family.

LegacyUser

Charlotte Anne Hudson said: I don't want to correct anything...I just want to add new records.

LegacyUser

gloria murry said: Name: Eugene P Wilson
Event: Census
Event Date: 1930
Event Place: Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri
Gender: Male
Age: 23
Marital Status: Married
Race: White
Birthplace: Missouri
Estimated Birth Year: 1907
Immigration Year:
Relationship to Head of Household: Head
Father's Birthplace: United States
Mother's Birthplace: United States (This was my grandfather ,he was born in 1906 .) This was my grandmother , she was born in 1908 .) can you fix this? Name: Myrtle F Wilson
Event: Census
Event Date: 1930
Event Place: Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri
Gender: Female
Age: 21
Marital Status: Married
Race: White
Birthplace: Missouri
Estimated Birth Year: 1909
Immigration Year:
Relationship to Head of Household: Wife
Father's Birthplace: Ohio
Mother's Birthplace: Missouri

LegacyUser

Mary Susan (Carlson) Scott said: Gloria we aren't able correct the information you listed on this site.

The information you provided is actually from the estimations found on the original U.S. Census records. It was not caused by inaccurate indexing. The years are determined by the date of the census and the age. Don't be too concerned about the estimated years.

What we've been discussing are ways for patrons to make additions, corrections and notes to the indexed records. We expect that the original transcription from the indexers will be left as is which is fine.

All we want is a way to alert others about the records and provide changes and additional notes due to indexing errors and misreading of the original documents.

If you want to make additions at this time, check out the listing for the census on www.Ancestry.com which allows users to make notes, etc. Many public libraries and local family history centers have Ancestry available for researchers to use without fees.

LegacyUser

Clyde Rose said: Dear sirs,
I wish to correct my grandfathers name that has been incorrectly spelled in your records. It is Alexander Charles Inniss and not Tuniss. Even his fathers name in the same record needs to be changed to John Inniss.
Clyde Rose
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India Marriages, 1792-1948 for Kathleen Elizabeth Whitting
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groom's name: Alexander Charles Tuniss
groom's birth date: 1896
groom's birthplace:
groom's age: 31
bride's name: Kathleen Elizabeth Whitting
bride's birth date: 1899
bride's birthplace:
bride's age: 28
marriage date: 04 May 1927
marriage place: Lahore, Bengal, India
groom's father's name: John Tuniss
groom's mother's name:
bride's father's name: Arthur Whitting
bride's mother's name:
groom's race:
groom's marital status: Single
groom's previous wife's name:
bride's race:

LegacyUser

Robert Phillips said: Firstly a note of thanks - your new site is superb: i am pleased that you have separated these transcriptions from member submissions, which have proved to have far too many errors to have as much worth as they may have done.

I appreciate your comments about corrections and agree that underlying records cannot be changed. However, I feel that the following is more easily addressed:
-------

I have 5 search results for the same couple's marriage, apparently transcribed from the same source record (digital folder 4298440), but showing 3 different dates. My search was for

richard rush,
Event: Marriage,
Place: langdon hills, essex,
Year: 1776-1796

Of the 5 relevant results, two came back with 19 Apr 1789, the others show 1779, of which two show 18 Apr and one 19 Apr.

When there is an apparently obvious error like this it would be useful to be able to let someone know. I can accept that the bride's surname may be difficult to discern in those records, so am not worried about the Benton/Bonton transcription (though know separately it is Benton).

LegacyUser

Tina Beer said: A database is only as good as its data. If it has known errors in transcription, there needs to be a method to correct that data. Perhaps it could be done through the volunteer transcribers. Create an online form that lets the submitter report what they think the correct transcription is and then have the volunteer transcriber compare the suggested correction to the original document. Do it twice and if you get an answer from both transcribers that it needs to be corrected, then it probably does.

LegacyUser

Tina Beer said: As people use the database, there will be discoveries of corrections. For example, the 1870 US Census has been transcribed to show my GG-Grandfather as George Bar rather than George Beer. I understand why the transcriber would have written Bar because the handwriting could easily be read that way with the two e's looping closely together. I know enough to look for odd spellings, but not everyone will. There should be a method to correct this error and others like it.

LegacyUser

Joe Mode said: Another great dilema.I was having trouble finding a Potts family in Bedford County, Tennessee, knowing that they had to be there. Guess what name they were listed under? Potter. Come on folks, give us a way to correct this nonsense. Potts was spelled wrong from 1860 to 1920. Pats, Pates, Potter, etc.

LegacyUser

Gale Thomas Hogg said: Thank you for your suggestion, Wayne. As an arbitrator I will henceforth peruse all fields. GH

LegacyUser

Melody Bandley said: How about allowing people to post notes on the individuals detail page to help others.

LegacyUser

David Fleer said: I have a Jakob Echternkamp, father of Margr. Ils. (Margarethe Ilsabein), whose record appears in "Russia Deaths and Burials 1815-1917" even though her place of demise is "Stedefreund". Your own Standard Finder places this location in Nordrhein-Westfalen, nowhere close to Russia. This entire indexing project needs to be reviewed and re-positioned to Germany / Prussia. It would appear that someone missed the "P" in "Prussia" when they labeled this project.

Is this the proper forum for reporting such egregious errors?

LegacyUser

Cynthia Smith said: The error in my in-laws' census data comes because the census taker sometimes used cursive capital "E's" for lower case e's and other times used cursive lower case "e's". Therefore, the letter sometimes looks like an "r", an "i", or an "s". Also, the cursive lower case "n's" often have a dip between the two humps that make them look like "u's". This is often the case during the early 1900's (and probably more so during the 1800's). However, if compared to other names on the same document, written by the same census taker, the spelling becomes clearer. I would like to suggest some training for the transcribers that will help them look at the census taker's writing of other names when they are not sure of the spelling. This is how my husband's grandmother's name of Loneta was transcribed as Lonita from the 1930 census and as Loueta from the 1920 census when, by looking at each census, the name was spelled as Loneta each time. I have done some indexing work myself and know how hard it is to decipher the spellings many times. When I had a hard time here and there, I would note that I wasn't sure about the spelling so another pair of eyes could look at it. However, I received one batch that was so hard for me to decipher that I stopped indexing for fear that I would just mess up too much and make it harder for the family members searching for their ancestors.

LegacyUser

Don Cameron said: Perhaps your software engineers need to talk to the people at Ancestry.com about their system of allowing corrections or additions to records. Their system seem to work quite well, so if they can do it, then I'm sure FamilySearch can too. It really annoys me that I can't correct errors on your new site, especially my grandfather's mothers name and surname, which you have got completely wrong, but then so did the vicar when he wrote it down in the church register. I have my grandfather's birth certificate which does have his mother's correct names, thank goodness. Otherwise we would start to wonder why family knowledge was so wrong.

Don Cameron.

LegacyUser

Que Bradshaw said: Regarding the family of Horace Robert Bloxham (KWC5-G5K)
the following children are not his children but are older siblings
of Horace Robert Bloxhams:
1- Martha Ann Bloxham
2- Fredericj Fitz John Bloxham
3- Frences Emme Bloxham

LegacyUser

Stuart Grifenhagen said: There are several misspellings of various family members. And no means to provide input/feedback/corrections?

I did a family search on Benjamin Grifenhagen. In the results are various records with his name spelled in various ways. The URL is below:

https://www.familysearch.org/search/r...~

The record label "New York Marriages, 1686-1980", His spouse is listed as "Estan Foss". Her name is Esther Foss (or Voss).

The groom's family name should be spelled "Klaus" not Klous.

The record labeled "Benjamin W Griffenhagen / New York Marriages, 1686-1980" should read "Benjamin W Grifenhagen".

In the item labeled "Groom's Name", the name should read "Benjamin W. Grifenhagen".

The next two records have the surname spelled 'Griffenhagen'. It should read 'Grifenhagen' for both "Benjamin" and Max S."

In the record for "Benj Grifenhager" in the US Census 1920, the name should be "Benjamin Grifenhagen".

In the detail for the above, Benjamin Grifenhagen's spouse is "Ernestine Grifenhagen". His children are "Joseph Grifenhagen" and Ethel Grifenhagen.

And to think I didn't even get to Carrie B Grifenhagey, (should be Carrie B Grifenhagen) Moe S Grifenhagey (should be Max S Grifenhagen), B. W. Grifenhager (B. W. Grifenhagen), Ernie Grifenhager (Ernestine Grifenhagen), B Gripenhager (Benjamin Grifenhagen), Carrie B Cole Gufenhagey, Max S Gufenhagey, or Edith Gufenhagey!

And then there's Moe S. Grifenhagey (Max S Grifenhagen), Carrie B Grifenhagey (Grifenhagen), and others...

And that's not all of the mistakes.

You've got to come up with a means of communicating and putting into place corrections to these records.

LegacyUser

Joe Mode said: Well, I can see how really odd or complicaed names can be butchered. Having done this stuff and read census rolls, etc., for years now I can vouch for how hard it is to read and decipher names when they are not your own family. That being said, I have just learned to look for a last name, or a first name during a specific time and place in order to find material when the obvious spellings bring no results. Beginners, however, generally don't go this route, ergo we must have a way to correct the mistakes.

LegacyUser

Pat Mann said: I think you have to be careful with people adding corrections. If they do they should provide supporting sources for their changes or have them available to check out. On ancestry.com a person I was researching had a correction changing the name from Marcus to Chris. All my research and sources (and I have many for this person) do not support the name being changed to Chris.

I agree people researching their family can recognize errors in names. One ancestor's birth is registered as Aileta Mary Elizabeth Young and because the name was so long they didn't add the last name Elliott, this could be seen only when you checked the father. The transcriber couldn't know that Elliott was the actual last name and that Young was a middle name. If corrections were possible I would add the last name and provide proof of why she should be considered an Elliott, all of course without changing the original transcription.

Lastly I only found her birth registration by adding parents names into the search and leaving out the Young part. Like the comment by Joe Mode I have learned new ways to search and am still learning but finding a way to correct mistakes would cut down possible research time.

LegacyUser

Doris Honeycutt said: How do you manage to get the persons name and his fathers name incorrect when on the next line the name is properly spelled. I am refering to William Mumford Parnell. You have him incorectly spelled Mumfort and his father as John. His fathers name was William Parnell also. I know this because they are my grandparents.

LegacyUser

Robert Phillips said: It would be completely wrong for people to be able to randomly "correct" records which have been transcribed, and without view of or reference to the original record, because there are many people whose research is abysmal.

Such a system would make the whole database completely unreliable.

One has only to look through the IGI at records submitted by members to see masses of appalling mistakes, and completely impossible attributions and dates. I spotted one a little while back where a preteen male was "married" to a female in her late 30s with a bundle of children at foot - all older than he was! Right name, but wrong generation, and unrelated to the family listed.

Instead, a system of notification of a possible error should trigger a review by one of the records team - to be corrected if an error is apparent.

LegacyUser

Mary Susan (Carlson) Scott said: I agree wholeheartedly that the records cannot be permanently corrected -- we need what is transcribed on the records to be accurate so the idea of a "records team" re-examining the documents is a good one.

Still, it would be nice if we could post some additional notes, facts, etc. which might be helpful to everyone looking at the records.

I have also seen where researchers want so badly to grow branches on their family trees that they accept all sorts of information -- even if it's obviously incorrect.

This situation isn't limited to the indexing of records either. Just today I was working on some Dutch families. One of the researchers used a registration date for the birth as a christening date. To make it even more confusing, the registration/christening date was a year before the documented birth date. Turns out that there was a baby with the identical name who was born and died in 1829 and the other person was born in 1830. Pretty improbable to be baptized before being born!!

It would be good to have information attached to a record but not change the data of the original record.

LegacyUser

Don Cameron said: I don't think that FamilySearch should go down the path of randomly changing the original records. The system Ancestry have allows additions or corrections to be made, but with the records as transcribed by them remaining the same. For example, if John SMITH was recorded as being born in Stepney, London on the 17th of May 1643, but his real name was John SMYTH, than this could be added and anyone looking for John SMYTH would find the correction, and anyone looking for John SMITH would still see the original transcription, but the variation to the surname would be available also. As for people who have make additions or correction based on bad research, well what difference does it make? If anything, it makes you double check your own research. When I make corrections on Ancestry I give my evidence, and people who come after me can make up their own minds who is correct. Sometimes I've had to go back and change my own corrections, not that they were wrong, but because I have found more evidence to support my changes. Of course there has been the odd times where I've made errors, who can say they don't. At least on Ancestry you can contact the person who made the correction and if necessary discuss the variation between their research and your own.
I had a case recently where a girl in England had my great aunt married to her grandfather, except my great aunt was never married to her grandfather. With a little help from me, we were able to find the right wife for her grandfather, and so set her on the right path. She was new to genealogy. Perhaps if FamilySearch do introduce corrections and additions, they might care to allow only registered users to make corrections, thereby allowing people to contact one another by e-mail or via a contact function, something like what I'm doing right now.

LegacyUser

Margery Ellan Jones said: First off - I am Margi Jones in the Sierra Montana Ward in Surprise AZ - my email address is queenofthehop@cox.net. I'm not sure where to go on the newfamilysearch website here to make a suggestion. So I hope this gets to the right person and it makes sense. When I bring up an ancestor's name and click on the column that shows Summary, Details, and LDS Ordinances - on the LDS Ordinance section, I see the ancestor's name at the top and scroll down to look at more information, it brings me right passed the Endowment information. I then can only see 1/2 of this page - so - I therefore, scroll down where I see Sealing to Parents and Sealing to Spouse. Well, by then, I have forgotten (since I am working on so many ancestors) the name of the person and have to scroll up to the top. I see at the end of the Endowment area there seems to be room to place the person's name again so that it would show up on the scrolled down page. I think this would be so convenient and not confusing and so helpful and save time! I hope you have understood what I am trying to get across. Please feel free to email me or even call me if you do not understand and are interested in my idea. I can be reached at: 623-792-8217 - Margi Jones. Thank you for reading this!

LegacyUser

Mary Susan (Carlson) Scott said: This sounds like a good suggestion. Having the name of the individual would be very convenient.

LegacyUser

Lise Prud'homme said: This is too bad, for I found it interesting on the pedigree resource file some of the info i had searched on myself.....

Your submitters name ldstephano2720321 entered until Cleophas Séguin but their were so many other children in that family....why no record......

I do understand you are not able to correct or add.....

I have the Séguin dictionary in my possession and names of those children are included with sources also thru other means available

Hope to see this corrected or added in the near future so that I may add my info on the Son named Abraham Séguin that and children and one was Joseph Abraham which had a daughter names Ida whom happens to be my grand-mother

Tks Lise Prud'homme Labbé

LegacyUser

Diane McGuffin said: I hope that corrections can be noted soon on Family Search as they can be on Ancestry.com. Genealogy is a search puzzle and it is quite easy to mix up members of the family without transcription errors, which is why I like to correct them as they are found. For example N B Gragson lived in Grayson Ky and many seem to think the g is incorrect in Gragson - alas it is correct. And Eva really is in some cases Era. and poor Violet whose death record I found under the name of Dudley. Yes these things happen for many reasons but it is nice when we can correct and there by aid others in finding the correct folks. Keep working on it and I will wait to correct. :-)