How do we get NY corrected to KY?
Thanks to everyone who helped to transcribe the 1950 Federal Census. I enjoyed helping out my small bit with Kentucky census records.
In accessing several hundred different 1950 Federal Census transcribed on Ancestry.com in different locations, I've now seen a repeating pattern of Kentucky (KY) reflected as New York (NY) on the birth field. This isn't limited to one county or location, but rather a widespread error throughout large numbers of Kentucky's 1950 Federal Census.
My best guess is the handwriting recognition software used in the process incorrectly interpreted Kentucky (KY) as New York (NY).
How do we go about getting this corrected systematically v/s by the ones?
If left status quo, it is going to create scores of errors in family trees for those researching their Kentucky ancestors (particularly by those new to family history who may not familiar with this systematic error in the handwriting software).
Thank you for reading this message and offering any systematic solutions.
Christopher Padgett
President
Kentucky Genealogical Society
www.kygs.org
Answers
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It's not just Kentucky. I've seen numerous instances where NJ was transcribed as NY and the reverse.
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@Kentucky1792, We have seen this quite a bit for sure with the wrong state indexed. As soon as the Kentucky 1950 census has gone through the process for publication and it is published, you will be able to correct the state name.
Thank you for asking the question. It helps others when you reach out.
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This doesn't answer my question. The question I asked, again, is can this issue by corrected *systematically* or not? Again, the issue here is whether or not the error is going to create scores of inaccurate online trees.
I have experienced a similar issue many years in online Wisconsin birth records which took me years to get corrected. The issue in that instance was their was a duplicate birth record generated in both Sheyboygan and St. Croix counties (two counties on completely opposite sides of the state). In that instance, the error in the records persists to this day in online trees as "researchers" added St. Croix to their online trees when the persons were actually born in Sheboygan County. I reported that issue to Ancestry.com many years ago and it took over seven years to get it corrected.
In these instances, when a researcher takes the time to flag a collection with a glaring error. The matter needs to be addressed one way or another. To just ignore it makes some of us not want to engage with your platform.
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@Kentucky1792, I sincerely apologize for missing the root of your question about "systematically". I misunderstood for errors after publication. So sorry.
Right now the Ancestry records for Kentucky are the computer aided index, and it will have errors. Once FamilySearch publishes the reviewed records of Kentucky, Ancestry will have the same publication and their records will be updated, and many of the errors your are seeing will be taken care of.
The reason that we are doing a review is to catch these exact kinds of errors by the computer. In order to do something systematically, the computer would have to be able to tell the difference between what should be KY and what should be NY, and it already tried and failed.
Thank you so much for your question. I hope that we have answered your question sufficiently. Again, so sorry. I know that it very much frustrated you!
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