• Problems with FamilySearch

    From Steve Hayes@21:1/5 to hayesstw@telkomsa.net on Thu Aug 20 04:33:22 2020
    XPost: england.genealogy.misc, soc.genealogy.computing, alt.genealogy
    XPost: free.uk.genealogy, soc.genealogy.misc

    On Sat, 15 Aug 2020 08:51:00 +0200, Steve Hayes
    <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> wrote:

    But they recently seem to have acquired a new source, "Cumbria Parish >Records", which they are showing in their "Hints". It actually seems
    to be an index rather than a transcription, and has far less
    information than their "English Birth and Christenings" resource,
    which is a transcription rather than an index, and often has a link to
    images of the actual parish records where you can check the accuracy
    of the transcription.

    Someone from the Cumberland Family Huistoery Society tried to discuss
    this with FamilySearch and commented:

    "I have had a long series of exchanges with Family Search over this,
    initially the responses were standard pro forma answers about how to
    use the website which did not answer the question posed.

    I have now received from them another standard answer which
    essentially says "Thank you for reporting errors in this database
    which they will investigate and address, however due to the volume of
    work do not expect this to be for at least a year" and have closed
    down my query.

    Note that most of the entries in this so called Cumbria Database are
    in fact from the Furness region of Lancashire, the full list of
    records it contains is :

    (Film Collection) Parish registers for Blawith, 1709-1902 / Church of
    England. Chapelry of Blawith (Lancashire) (Film Collection) Parish
    registers for Egton-with-Newland, 1792-1917 / Church of England.
    Chapelry of Egton-with-Newland (Lancashire) (Film Collection) Parish
    registers for Haverigg, 1891-1911 / Church of England. Chapelry of
    Haverigg (Cumberland) (Film Collection) Parish registers for Holy
    Trinity Church, Ulverston, 1832-1914 / Church of England. Holy Trinity
    Church (Ulverston, Lancashire) (Film Collection) Parish registers for
    Ireleth, 1865-1909 / Church of England. Chapelry of Ireleth
    (Lancashire) (Film Collection) Parish registers for Kendal, 1558-1907
    / Church of England. Parish Church of Kendal (Westmoreland) (Film
    Collection) Parish registers for Kirkby-Lonsdale, 1538-1910 / Church
    of England. Parish Church of Kirkby-Lonsdale (Westmoreland) (Film
    Collection) Parish registers for Lowick, 1718-1916 / Church of
    England. Chapelry of Lowick (Lancashire) (Film Collection) Parish
    registers for Osmotherley, 1874-1908 / Church of England. Parish
    Church of Osmotherley (Lancashire) (Film Collection) Parish registers
    for St. George's Church, Millom, 1877-1909 / Church of England. St.
    George's Church (Millom) (Film Collection) Parish registers for
    Thwaites, 1724-1911 / Church of England. Chapelry of Thwaites
    (Cumberland). (Film Collection) Parish registers for Ulverston,
    1545-1911 / Church of England. Parish Church of Ulverston (Lancashire)
    (Film Collection) Parish registers for Walney, 1744-1917 / Church of
    England. Chapelry of Walney (Lancashire) (Film Collection) The
    registers of the church of S. S. Michael & All Angels, Muncaster,
    Cumbria in three parts / Church of England. Parish Church of Muncaster (Cumberland)

    So it is by no means a full record for the county of Cumbria."

    So the Lancashire online parish clerks is probably a better bet
    anyway.



    --
    Steve Hayes
    Web: http://hayesgreene.wordpress.com/
    http://hayesgreene.blogspot.com
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/afgen/

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  • From Steve Hayes@21:1/5 to hayesstw@telkomsa.net on Tue Aug 25 04:40:00 2020
    XPost: england.genealogy.misc, soc.genealogy.computing, alt.genealogy
    XPost: free.uk.genealogy, soc.genealogy.misc

    On Sat, 15 Aug 2020 08:51:00 +0200, Steve Hayes
    <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> wrote:

    For the last few years I've been using FamilySearch a lot, comparing
    our records with ones on their family tree, and trying to verify
    everything.

    But they recently seem to have acquired a new source, "Cumbria Parish >Records", which they are showing in their "Hints". It actually seems
    to be an index rather than a transcription, and has far less
    information than their "English Birth and Christenings" resource,
    which is a transcription rather than an index, and often has a link to
    images of the actual parish records where you can check the accuracy
    of the transcription.

    I've now incorporated some warnings about this in a blog post on
    "Getting the best out of FamilySearch"

    <https://hayesgreene.blogspot.com/2020/08/getting-best-out-of-familysearch.html>
    or
    https://t.co/XRQDD6SXDf?amp=1

    It was also prompted by complaints on a Facebook genealogy group from
    people who said they had started "my tree" on FamilySearch, and were
    enraged when people merged people on "my tree" without their
    permission.

    If you have any good hints and tips on using FamilySearch, please
    write them here, and possibly in comments on the blog post.




    --
    Steve Hayes
    Web: http://hayesgreene.wordpress.com/
    http://hayesgreene.blogspot.com
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/afgen/

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  • From Jenny M Benson@21:1/5 to Steve Hayes on Tue Aug 25 10:09:49 2020
    XPost: england.genealogy.misc, soc.genealogy.computing, alt.genealogy
    XPost: free.uk.genealogy, soc.genealogy.misc

    On 25/08/2020 03:40, Steve Hayes wrote:
    It was also prompted by complaints on a Facebook genealogy group from
    people who said they had started "my tree" on FamilySearch, and were
    enraged when people merged people on "my tree" without their
    permission.

    That sounds like people not understanding the whole purpose of FS
    FamilyTree. It rather reminds me of a saying that my father used to
    use: "you can legislate for the fool, but not for the bloody fool."

    I am not a member of the LDS Church and I do no embrace many of their
    beliefs but I have met with much kindness and generosity from many
    members and I admire much of what they do. It costs me nothing to
    garner a vast quantity of valuable data from the FS site and if it is
    sometimes a little hard to find or a tad misleading then that is a small
    price to pay and not worth my bitching about.

    --
    Jenny M Benson
    Wrexham, UK

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  • From Steve Hayes@21:1/5 to NemoNews@hotmail.co.uk on Wed Aug 26 10:10:56 2020
    XPost: england.genealogy.misc, soc.genealogy.computing, alt.genealogy
    XPost: free.uk.genealogy, soc.genealogy.misc

    On Tue, 25 Aug 2020 10:09:49 +0100, Jenny M Benson
    <NemoNews@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:

    I am not a member of the LDS Church and I do no embrace many of their
    beliefs but I have met with much kindness and generosity from many
    members and I admire much of what they do. It costs me nothing to
    garner a vast quantity of valuable data from the FS site and if it is >sometimes a little hard to find or a tad misleading then that is a small >price to pay and not worth my bitching about.

    I agree, but I do think it is worth warning people about when in the
    hints they show bad data before good, because if people accept those
    hints the tree will gradually degrade instead of improving.


    --
    Steve Hayes
    Web: http://hayesgreene.wordpress.com/
    http://hayesgreene.blogspot.com
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/afgen/

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