Something Is Terribly Wrong with the 1900 U.S. Census Data File
I hope someone from technical support reads this. There is something wrong with the 1900 U.S. Census data file, at least for Pennsylvania. I have encountered dozens of cases of this problem:
- When trying to attach the Census from Research Help, I get an error "! 410 - Record removed."
- When clicking on Review Attachments in Sources for previously attached records, I get the same error.
See screen shot examples. I have many more. This only happens with 1900 Census records.
Sincerely,
Mark Hansen
Answers
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There is a known issue with the 1900 US census. It is with the developers for a fix. See this thread, among others: https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/111793/a-gremlin-in-the-1900-us-census-kearny-new-jersey#latest
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URGENT @N Tychonievich, @Áine Ni Donnghaile - What is the status of this issue, please? It seems every 1900 Census in Pennsylvania has this problem. I have many dozens of examples. This defect is affecting not only 1900 Censuses that I am trying to attach, but also 1900 Censuses that were attached by others years ago. It has been happening for months now. Please let me know when it will be fixed. Thank you.
Mark Hansen
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@Mark.B.Hansen The last I heard back from engineering (4 days ago), they believe they have identified the source of the problems and have assigned an individual to work on it. Months? Maybe. We first reported it to engineering on 18 December. Not a lot of work gets done during the holidays. Being married to a software engineer, I can tell you that even things that seem to be quick fixes can sometimes prove to be more difficult to nail down than one might expect. Let's give them time to get it working.
As as workaround, you can always add the census image to your source box. From there, you can attach it to family members correctly.
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Thank you @N Tychonievich.
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Thanks, @N Tychonievich. Well, it SEEMS like months. 🙂 I didn't write down when I first started seeing it. Yeah, the workaround is very tedious. Based on the number of 1900 Censuses I find and need to attach each day, my source box would be overflowing! And attaching the Censuses the real way automatically adds it as a Residence in the Other Information section, which the workaround doesn't do, so I would have to do that manually for each person in the family. And worst of all, in many cases you can't even view a 1900 Census that is already attached. You just get a !410 - Record Removed error. So needless to say, I am anxious for the fix. 🙂
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Suggestion for the workaround: instead of a separate addition to your Source Box for every person mentioned, create a "whole family" citation for the image, then go into your source box from your account icon (rather than from a tree profile) to make use of the new attachment options (finding profiles to attach a citation to based on name, ID, or your recents list). No, it will not create a residence under Other, but on the plus side, it'll create a linked set of citations, where if you fix a typo in one instance, it'll be corrected on every profile where it's used. A citation that refers directly to the image rather than to someone's reading of it will also be a lot closer to good genealogical practice than FS's index-centric setup.
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Any updates?
Will we need to reattach 1900 census records after the fix?
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Yes, and yes.
The problem has been corrected, and you will likely have to reattach.
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I am sorry to report that the problem has NOT been corrected, at least not completely. Here is an example from today. I did a search, found the record I want, and clicked on the View Record Details icon.
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Interesting... your screenshot of the page is arranged different than mine:
I guess the responsive development is making better use of the screen now - cool ...
I could not duplicate this error when clicking the Record icon for Rebecca (https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&f.recordType=3&q.birthLikeDate.from=1824&q.birthLikeDate.to=1824&q.givenName=rebecca&q.recordCountry=United%20States&q.recordSubcountry=United%20States%2CPennsylvania&q.surname=jefferies)
It takes me to the record at: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:669R-SP4V
Note: The record has not resolved the issue for this family yet. Apparently this means they are still working to resolve the issue. I guess it may take some more time to get it more completely done.
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Here's another example from today (Error !410 - Record removed):
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Here's another example from today (Joseph Wardman Kenworthy Jr. K83T-2MG):
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Is there any update on the status of this defect? It's still not fixed, at least not completely. Here are two fresh examples from today. The first is of a previously attached 1900 Census which is now unviewable, and the second is of an unattached 1900 Census which cannot be attached.
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Is there any news on the status of this defect? Is it still being worked on? Does each error have to be individually reported and manually fixed by the programmers? I was expecting a fix that corrected all the 1900 Census errors. Here is an example that as of today is still showing error 410.
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@Mark.B.Hansen The general problem was fixed, but records attached before the fix still show in source with the error message. We have not gotten a clear statement as to whether those will be fixed. The suggestion has been to detach those sources and find the person in the 1900 census afresh and attach. For most tree records, we are finding 2 sources for 1900 census--one works and the other doesn't, so detaching the bad one solves the problem. We'll ping the engineers to inquire as to whether more will be done. Our guess is that the answer will be "no".
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@N Tychonievich Thank you for the update. I'm sorry to say the workaround you suggested doesn't work, at least not in this case. Here is what the record looks like for the wife:
The record is attached to the husband (Eli Dyson 9ZSY-KM9), but here is what the record looks like:
Here is what happens when I try to search for him in Search>Records>United States Census 1900. It can't find his record by name and birth year:
And when I click on the image that is attached to Eli Dyson in Sources, it looks like this:
So we just have to live with it?
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@Mark.B.Hansen Thank you for providing good details of the problem. Obviously things are not fixed. We'll get this reported again. Unfortunately, we have no idea how long it might take before we see a resolution.
While you wait, here is a way to get the census image attached to each member of Eli Dyson's household. A little more work than just clicking and using Source Linker, but certainly doable:
First, you need to get to the image. If you have the URL still, you can just use it. Otherwise, I found it by searching the 1900 Census for Sarah Dyson born 1871 and residence of Montgomery, Pennsylvania. Here's a link to the search results page
In the search results, she is the first on the list (there are only 2). Click the camera icon for her listing and the image opens. Now you have 2 options. You can copy the image URL and use it to create sources, or you can click Source Box on the image page and add the census image to your source box. Here is one way to do it.
When you click Source Box and then Add to Source box, a screen appears where you can edit the title to be whatever you'd like to see as the source title. You can add it to a folder if you have folders in your source box. And you can put in some notes--often a summary or extraction of the data. Then click Save.
Now you can use this for your ancestors. Open your Source Box. In the top-right, click your name and then Source Box.
To the right of the 1900 census entry, click Attach.
The Attach Source screen lets you find a person by name or tree ID or from a list of recently viewed people. Find the person and then click Next.
Click Attach, then repeat for the rest of the household members. A little tedious, but not terribly difficult.
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