26 November 2012

Unresolved Issues At Ancestry.com

My "decimal point" post got me to thinking about Ancestry.com issues I've had that are currently unresolved or where I am waiting for a response. Those items are:

Ancestry.com is working (per an email) on how database search results are automatically incorporated into trees. I'll look and see if there are unresolved issues that I have encountered and add them to the list.

I don't blog about transcription errors--those can easily happen and listing those would be a never-ending task. Ancestry.com allows users to enter corrections. Remember though, that corrections should when the original record has been read incorrectly, not when the original record was wrong in the first place. That's not Ancestry.com's fault.

If you have other database search issues, please let me know.

And yes, I'm being a nag.

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5 comments:

  1. BeachWriter2:16 PM

    Just a slight correction, Michael. If you open the dialogue box for correcting information, you get several choices under REASON:
    * Transcription Error
    * Incorrect in Image
    * Nick Name
    * Maiden Name
    * Name Change
    * Variation
    In other words, it will accept corrections and/or additions to the information in the image as well as corrections in spelling and transcription.

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  2. Bubba5:15 PM

    Thanks for the clarification. The stickler in me doesn't really like the reason including things that are beyond transcription error.

    Alternate spellings to help users find the entry of interest aren't so bad I guess, but there are people who I have seen "correct" names that are not even wrong.

    Personally, if I am unfamiliar with the area and the family, I don't make any suggestions or correction. Someone suggested that my great-grandmother in 1920 is Sjode instead of Tjode. I really doubt a family member made the suggestion as her name is well--known to have been Tjode. And if they had looked at all the upper-case "S"s in the word "Son," they would have realized that the first letter of her name was not an "S."

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  3. Bubba5:15 PM

    Thanks for the clarification. The stickler in me doesn't really like the reason including things that are beyond transcription error.

    Alternate spellings to help users find the entry of interest aren't so bad I guess, but there are people who I have seen "correct" names that are not even wrong.

    Personally, if I am unfamiliar with the area and the family, I don't make any suggestions or correction. Someone suggested that my great-grandmother in 1920 is Sjode instead of Tjode. I really doubt a family member made the suggestion as her name is well--known to have been Tjode. And if they had looked at all the upper-case "S"s in the word "Son," they would have realized that the first letter of her name was not an "S."

    ReplyDelete
  4. John5:31 AM

    I've blogged about an issue I have with Ancestry's SSDI database, and their field for Last Residence. I believe the data provides the zip code of last residence and all the potential cities that zip code covers, but Ancestry only lists the first city on the list, implying a definite answer instead of a multiple choice.

    Here's my post on this
    http://blog.transylvaniandutch.com/2012/11/inaccuracies-in-ancestry-ssdi-database.html

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  5. Bubba9:19 AM

    John-

    I'll have to take a look at that, but I suspect you're right. It's been a while since I've used the Last Residence on the SSDI, but thanks for the reminder.

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