Can the Algorithm (or AI) used with the Find-a-Grave Index be corrected for people with Nicknames?
FamilySearch is returning an incomplete/misleading "Source Title" for Find-a-Grave records of people who have Nicknames. For example: The "Source Title" of the Find-a-Grave record for Charles “Charlie” Wicklein (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:W625-KBMM?lang=en) as listed under Sources, when attached, is simply: Charlie, "Find a Grave Index" (ref. attached image).
However, the actual name on the Find-a-Grave website is: Charles J. “Charlie” Wicklein (ref. attached image).
I suspect the Double-Quotes on Find-a-Grave are Unicode and thus confusing the algorithm (or AI) used to obtain the "Source Title" for the FamilySearch source.
Can this issue be corrected, please?
Thanks and regards.
[redacted]
Answers
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I second the suggestion! My paternal grandfather and great-grandfather both have nicknames on their memorials, which are displayed instead of their names.
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Mod note: Your post was edited to remove a name that is not part of your username. Please see the Community Code of Conduct.
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@TGoymerac
If you don't have many memorials showing with the nickname, it's easy to edit the title of the source.
I just did for my GF and GGF.
For my GF "Fence Busting Mike" was showing in the source at the top. I edited that to show his proper name. The nickname still shows in the detail, below.
And on my GGF I edited the title to show both the proper name and the nickname.
One was on the fire department baseball team and was said to hit the ball so hard that it went through the fence. The other was a hog butcher.
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Thanks for the hint.
Yes. I've been able to manually edit the Source Title to match the name as shown on Find-a-Grave. But that requires me to always remember to view the source on the Find-a-Grave website and go back to the Sources Tab after attaching, to double check and ensure they match (taking care not to typo my edit).
I believe that a majority of these instances will be overlooked by many other researchers who may be in a hurry or just forget to double check (or don't care).
This is something that FamilySearch can programmatically correct, thus helping to avoid misleading information.
Regards.
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Firstly let me say that I totally support the OP's original request.
Where I have concerns is when we get to:
"... that requires me to always remember to view the source on the Find-a-Grave website ...
"I believe that a majority of these instances will be overlooked by many other researchers who may be in a hurry or just forget to double check (or don't care).... "
Part of me agrees with this belief and wants to fix stuff on the FS side. But the other part of me says (to myself) that anyone who accepts a FindAGrave index without checking the original image deserves everything that they get.
The big problem with FindAGrave is that it no longer records gravestones - instead it's become "Find My Bit of probably sourceless Genealogy". Unless the researcher checks the image, they are taking someone else's research on trust. There might be details in the index as it's come through to FS that simply aren't on the gravestone and could therefore be simply wrong. One that I was just looking at has no image of a stone but a chunk of biographical data. The data has that level of detail that suggests careful research - but you can't tell any of that without looking at the FindAGrave record on that site. The FS record is simply not good enough. (And no, I am not suggesting that FS copies someone else's intellectual property wholesale)
About the only helpful suggestion I can make in the face of those who will not check the original image (if any) is to wonder if the FS index might be released to Source Linker only after the link to the original image has been brought up
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@TGoymerac
Excellent Question, I hope this helps you. Enjoy Family Search. You can always return and ask more questions.
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Hi @Knouf, Christopher William. Thanks for the feedback.
From your screenshot, it appears to show a way to submit corrections to Find-a-Grave. I have no issue with how the Find-a-Grave memorial is displayed.
My question is about how the FamilySearch algorithm (or AI) is interpreting the Find-a-Grave index and is not even listing the person's First Name or Surname, but only their Nickname in the Source Title, as in the example below.
I suspect the FamilySearch AI is confused by the Unicode Double-Quote characters, used to indicate the person's Nickname, in the Find-a-Grave index.
Unicode Left double quotation mark = HEX 93 = Alt. 0147 = “
Unicode Right double quotation mark = HEX 94 = Alt. 0148 = ”Those 2 characters are not the same as the double quotes on your keyboard (HEX 22 = ").
I'm asking if the FamilySearch AI can be updated to correct the issue so the person's full name will be listed in the FamilySearch Source Title.
Regards.
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Membership at Find a Grave is FREE (I live in the USA so I don't know about other countries) so why depend on an AI generated index when its easy to join and look up a person by name. You can also make edits/corrections. You can also see the contributor who might have genealogy info not found on the stone or memorial or obituary.
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@maryellenstevensbarnes1
The problem being reported is with the FamilySearch indexing, not the accuracy of Find a Grave content.4 -
I have done some analysis on 2,271 Find a Grave Record Personas in my analysis database that had nicknames on them.
The problem definitely seems to lie with the Historical Records, where either
a) the persona Title has just the nickname and the persona Citation has the full name, or
b) the persona Citation has just the nickname and the persona Title has the full name.
None of them have the full name in both the persona Title and the persona Citation.
The Source is imo blameless, it's just picking up the bad persona Title.
Despite quite a bit of digging in the data, I have been unable to identify any combination of metadata items, values, or Historical Record 'modified' dates that always makes a) happen rather than b), but both options are clearly incorrect, so the take-on algorithm from Find a Grave is basically failing whenever there is a nickname present.
imo this is definitely an ongoing bug (I refreshed my database re all the ones I looked at, and the underlying data shows some of the Historical Records as 'modified' yesterday/today).
Here are 10 examples:
persona
title
citation
recordModified
Find a Grave URL
4K45-GTZM
Carrie
Caroline Amelia Arnold Tillinghast
2025-04-01 21:20:48
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=202386353
4K7H-WQW2
Joseph Oscar Clark
Joe
2025-09-18 07:06:03
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=201727275
4K7W-LM3Z
Jane Frances Boyd Chandler
Priss
2025-04-01 20:25:34
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=201714837
4K8C-6YT2
Emma
Jane Rupert Eddy
2025-04-01 16:08:04
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=203656899
4K8F-8SN2
Annie Deborah Finch Keith
Anna
2026-02-24 21:52:53
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=203707020
4KF1-TM2M
William Franklin Ward
Dink
2025-04-01 11:37:39
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=203934801
4KNG-1X3Z
Nanny
Sarah Cordelia Green Kaiser Moore
2025-03-31 19:18:41
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=204488088
4KNS-KDT2
Josie
Joseph Edward Clark
2025-04-02 20:00:46
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=204285336
4KVQ-2CW2
James Morgan Clark
JM
2025-04-02 02:47:15
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=204821887
4KZ4-5GPZ
Jennie
Jane Amanda Warren Harris
2025-04-01 16:57:58
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=202925526
@shecorwe how should I be reporting this formally?
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@MandyShaw1 @TGoymerac This issue has been submitted for review. Thank you for your diligence in catching and reporting errors.
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