Ethnicity Issues

Áine Ní Donnghaile

Ann Dunn was born in Queen's (now Laois), Ireland. Attaching her 1884 Chicago death record to her profile, I have the option to add her Ethnicity which is categorized as American.

Where is this nonsense coming from? Trust me, it is NOWHERE in the original record.

ScottSeegmiller

The FamilySearch Library Catalog lists the information included in this collection.

What Can These Records Tell Me?[edit | edit source]

The following information may be found in these records:

1. Name of deceased
2. Gender and race of deceased
3. Age of death in years, months and days
4. Date and place of death
5. Cause of death and duration of illness
6. Occupation of deceased
7. Marital status
8. Nationality and place of birth
9. Place of burial
10. Name and address of reporting doctor

After 1916 the following information was added:

• Names of parents
• Birthplace of parents
• Date of burial
• Name of informant
• Employer

Is it possible that number 8 was indexed, and that the person reporting the death indicated that the nationality was American? I cannot look at the death certificate with out going to an affiliate library, but it would be interesting to look.

Áine Ní Donnghaile

The record does NOT say that Ann Dunn is American. It specifically states Irish for nationality and Ireland for place where born. I retrieved a copy of the image at my local Affiliate Library. I'll be happy to DM you a copy as we are not supposed to post restricted images in the community.

See also this thread where we have discussed previously but no progress on a fix: https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/141060/how-did-family-search-come-up-with-this-ethnicity-part/p1

ScottSeegmiller

I figured you had a copy, you are very thorough in your posts.

Is there a way to get to the batch where the record was indexed. Perhaps that would show how "American" got there?

Áine Ní Donnghaile

It didn't happen at indexing. It's post-processing corruption on MANY record sets, including the US Census.

ScottSeegmiller

Áine Ní Donnghaile

10 janv. 2024

It didn't happen at indexing. It's post-processing corruption on MANY record sets, including the US Census.

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