Silly Info on records
I know most if not all of us do this a personal interest and to fill some time in during lockdowns and also to relieve boredom or improve our typing skills. But has anyone come across anything whilst checking indexes. Such as silly names like Mickey Mouse or Snow White instead of an actual name like John Smith or Jack Jones for instance. I haven't yet but I wonder if there are any checks and balances in place to make sure this doesn't happen. #justcurious.
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Go to https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?q.givenName=mickey&q.surname=mouse&m.defaultFacets=on&m.queryRequireDefault=on&m.facetNestCollectionInCategory=on&count=20&offset=0 and you'll find quite a few Mickey Mouse entries. I haven't checked to see how many are genuine, but a number seem to be records that are from "United States, GenealogyBank Historical Newspaper Obituaries".
Some do slip through to the Family Tree program, along with fictional Scandinavian kings & queens, etc., but I understand there are efforts to monitor and remove this type of entry.
Just found this, too: https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?q.givenName=vlad&q.givenName.exact=on&q.surname=impaler&q.surname.exact=on&count=20&offset=0&m.defaultFacets=on&m.queryRequireDefault=on&m.facetNestCollectionInCategory=on. Maybe I've got too much time on my hands, too!
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(Comment removed by poster - added here in error.)
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Trouble is, just because something sounds silly doesn't mean it isn't real. People are silly among all our other traits.
One of the more notorious people finder sites, Spokeo.com (which I refer to as Spookyo due to the amount of information they have on people) lists 25 Vlad Impalers in the United States. If you want to buy a subscription you can get their current addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses.
The same website lists 1,166 Mickey Mouses and 285 Snow Whites.
If a name has made it past the indexer and reviewer, I would always assume it is actually what is in the record which was indexed and if it was someone I was researching, check the actual record. You can't tell from the index if the actual census record says Mickey Mouse, if that was the person's name, or if he was lying to the census taker. If it is a birth record, well, parents have done worse: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-outrageous-baby-names-parents-picked-in-2017_n_5b4eb4e5e4b0de86f487f824
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These records are indexed and then reviewed by at least one reviewer. In the event of many errors or questionable entries they can be reviewed 3 times by volunteers and then go to a FamilySearch team for a final 4th review. There are also teams that work on the records after they have been indexed and before they are published on FamilySearch. It is unlikely that a situation of sabotage would go unnoticed and it should be reported to FamilySearch if found. Yes, there is a system of checks and balances. Hopefully the reviewers are all committed to making sure the process works.
I did a quick search of Snow White and found that several little girls were named Snow White on various census records. Mickey Mouse is a little more difficult because there are so many, but, filtering the results found 15 entries that lead to Mickey Mouse in Find A Grave. In the few I looked they were nicknames which would be indexed in addition to one's given name as per the Alias Name instructions. Obviously, a name is not a silly or outrageous name to the one who bestows it or the one who carries it - even if the Huff post would disagree.
Keep in mind too that indexing is now being done by computers and some of FamilySearch records have been indexed by a computer and a note is found at the top of the index. Computers cannot leave out Mickey or Snow in case they are names or nicknames as you will find on a search. So, if the obits of GeneologyBank were computer generated, and it was the obituary of Walt Disney there are going to be thousands of Mickey Mouse mentions indexed from various newspapers.
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