XPost: soc.genealogy.computing, soc.genealogy.misc, alt.genealogy   
   XPost: england.genealogy.misc   
   From: rail@greywall.demon.co.uk   
      
   On 30/10/2021 05:54, Steve Hayes wrote:   
   > On Fri, 29 Oct 2021 09:48:08 +0100, Ian Goddard   
   >  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.   
   >   
   >   
      
   One I came across was my gg-grandfather's christening at St Thomas   
   Charterhouse, Clerkenwell (now demolished). The Family Search index   
   shows it as St Thomas, Virgin Isles!   
      
   --   
   Graeme Wall   
   This account not read.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)