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Re: FamilySearch introducing errors

Cross-posted to 5 groups.

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On 10/30/2021 12:54 AM, Steve Hayes wrote:
> On Fri, 29 Oct 2021 09:48:08 +0100, Ian Goddard
> <ianng@austonley.org.uk> wrote:
> 
>> On 29/10/2021 09:07, Steve Hayes wrote:
>>> FamilySearch has been plugging standardised place-names, which is not
>>> a bad idea but has now gone too far -- their software triest to
>>> automatically substitute "standard" place names for non-standard ones,
>>> but in the process it often inserts a place name that is entirely
>>> wrong and misleading, wand will ruin the usefulness of their
>>> collaborative family tree.
>>>
>>
>> FamilySearch have a long history of mangling places.  From the errors
>> I've seen it appears that batches of records from multiple places must
>> have been entered without changing the place name on the data entry
>> screen and any QA procedure has failed to trap it.
> 
> Yes, indeed. There have been transcrtiption errors, where someone has
> transcribed a parish register and gone on to transcribing another
> parish, without changing the name of the parish on the entry form. It
> is the kind of error where it might be qute easy to do a batch
> correction.
> 
> But what I am talking about here is not a human error of a fallible
> transcriber, but a deliberately introduced software error, which would
> be much more difficult to trace and correct.
> 
> Here is an example:
> 
> Mount Fenning
> England and Wales Census, 1841
> Name: Mount Fenning
> Event Type:	Census
> Event Date:	1841
> Event Place: Chichester St Martin, Chichester, Sussex, England, United
> Kingdom
> Event Place (Original):	St Martin, Essex, England
> County:	Essex
> Parish:	St Martin
> Residence Note:	Copping'S Buildings
> Sex:	Female
> Age:	9
> Age (Original):	9
> Birth Year (Estimated):	1832
> Birthplace:	Essex
> Page Number:	12
> Registration Number:	HO107
> Piece/Folio:	344/24
> Affiliate Record Type:	Institution
> Affiliate Image Identifier:
> GBC/1841/0344/0453&parentid=GBC/1841/0001424136
> Household	Role	Sex	Age	Birthplace
> Mount Fenning		Female	9	Essex
> Mary Fenning		Female	45	Essex
> Mary Fenning		Female	25	Essex
> John Fenning		Male	20	Essex
> Sarah Fenning		Female	16	Essex
> Thomas Fenning		Male	13	Essex
> 
> When I copy this event to my own family tree, it does not copy the
> original event place, but the spurious Chichester one.
> 
> I hope the people at FamilySearch will soon correct this software bug,
> but until they do, people who use FamiloySearch should be warned that
> they need to treat every place name as suspect.
> 
> Ancestry.com have long done this kind of thing, but it is new on
> FamilySearch.
> 
> 
This has been a problem for years, and is why I do not merge data into 
my database.  For several generation, my family come from one county in 
Indiana.  As the county changed from wild forest to a fairly large city 
things changed.  Many times a family is listed in one small community in 
one census and another in the next, but they are still on the farm they 
were on in the previous census.

Many years ago I standardized my location, to the smallest stable 
location.  In this county it is townships.  I  then note the community 
in the description part of the location fact.  An example:  the family 
lived in Milan township, and in the Chaberlain community. Since in the 
stable community is Milan township,  I put that in the location field. 
and in the description, Chamberlain.  (Today very few people know 
Chamberlain existed.)

In my opinion, the location is so that I can go to any current map and 
locate where the family lived. In this way when in the area I can easily 
travel to that location.   If I use the name of community that no longer 
exist, I may never find the family farm.  The historical location is put 
in the description, or a note if the information on the historical 
location is to large for the description.

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Thread

FamilySearch introducing errors Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2021-10-29 10:07 +0200
  Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Ian Goddard <ianng@austonley.org.uk> - 2021-10-29 09:48 +0100
    Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2021-10-30 06:54 +0200
      Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Graeme Wall <rail@greywall.demon.co.uk> - 2021-10-30 08:38 +0100
        Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2021-10-31 20:32 +0200
      Re: FamilySearch introducing errors knuttle <keith_nuttle@sbcglobal.net> - 2021-10-30 08:51 -0400
        Locations (was: Re: FamilySearch introducing errors) "J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> - 2021-10-30 15:38 +0100
          Re: Locations (was: Re: FamilySearch introducing errors) knuttle <keith_nuttle@sbcglobal.net> - 2021-10-30 18:06 -0400
      Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Ian Goddard <ianng@austonley.org.uk> - 2021-10-30 16:02 +0100
        Re: FamilySearch introducing errors "J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> - 2021-10-30 16:23 +0100
          Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2021-10-31 20:34 +0200
        Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2021-10-31 20:26 +0200
      Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Ian Goddard <ianng@austonley.org.uk> - 2021-10-31 17:25 +0000
    Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Ian Goddard <ianng@austonley.org.uk> - 2022-02-14 23:23 +0000
      Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Daniel65 <daniel47@eternal-september.org> - 2022-02-15 22:42 +1100
      Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2022-02-16 07:45 +0200
      Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Nigel Reed <sysop@endofthelinebbs.com> - 2022-02-22 14:15 -0600
        Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Ian Goddard <ianng@austonley.org.uk> - 2022-02-23 15:45 +0000
          Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Nigel Reed <sysop@endofthelinebbs.com> - 2022-02-24 17:34 -0600

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