The Family Tree
By Terence L. Day
Terence L. Day, genealogist and journalist, is on the Washington State University faculty. He welcomes e-mail at genealogy@moscow.com, or regular mail in care of the Tri-City Herald City newsroom, P.O. Box 2608, Tri-Cities, WA 99302-2608.
Errors in genealogy common, repairable
This column was published July 21, 1996
If to err is human, there can be no question about where zoologists classify genealogists who, the record will show, litter their records with errors.
Thanks to that most marvelous of inventions - the computer - a single genealogist now can replicate more errors in a few minutes than a thousand monks could hand copy in a hundred years.
This is a particular problem for the Family History Library collection maintained by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. The old saying, "garbage in, garbage out," was never more appropriate.
Library staff readily acknowledge the records they store are rife with error. They would like nothing better than to be able to perform an exorcism that would rid the massive system of all the mistakes genealogists -amateur and professional - have submitted to the system.
Occasionally, some genealogists who don't understand the nature of the LDS collection get a bit warm under the collar when they discover errors in the library's records.
Usually with the patience of Job, staff members explain the library does not - indeed could not - verify information. If genealogists submit incorrect information, the staff has no way of spotting the errors.
Often there is confusion about the two computerized databases available for public use at the Family History Library or via compact discs in about 2,600 Family History Centers throughout the world. They are the Ancestral File and the International Genealogical Index (IGI).
The library provides a way for genealogists to correct mistakes in the massive Ancestral File, but not in the IGI. The IGI consists of records of LDS temple ordinances performed since 1842. It, too, contains some erroneous data - submitted by erring humans.
The IGI is a record of what was done in the temples worldwide -vicarious baptisms and other ordinances. It also includes the ancestors - Mormons and non-Mormons - of those involved in the ordinances.
Heaven only knows how many errors exist in the vital information on 243 million people included in the IGI, but it cannot be changed because changes could lead to worse problems than living with errors - misspelled names, incorrect birth dates, and such.
But the Family History Library encourages changes to the Ancestral File, which consists of standard genealogical data on individ uals with links to their families. This database contains genealogies of at least 15 million people, most of which are linked in families from around the world. An update now in the works is expected to push that number well over 30 million.
Recently, I talked with two Family History Department staffers about these databases. LaKay Ashcroft, team leader for FamilySearch Support, and Barbara Morley, FamilySearch technician, said genealogists shouldn't view the Ancestral File as "the one correct source," but as a resource to guide their research.
It is up to the genealogist seeking information to check documentation, or seek it where it hasn't been cited, and determine the accuracy of information on file.
"The data is only as good as the research that was done to list it," Ashcroft said.
Morley explains there are two ways to correct information in the Ancestral File. One is to submit an edit while using Ancestral File in FamilySearch software at the Family History Library, the FamilySearch Center, or at any of the Family History Centers. You do this by simply pressing the F3 "edit" key while the record containing the error is displayed and following the instructions. They are too complicated to list here, but easy to follow on the computer screen.
The second method is to have the computer print out the record. Then mark the error with a red pen and attach the correction.
In either case, you will be required to list one or more specific sources for the correct information - birth certificate, census record, etc., family bible, or whatever. Corrections will be evaluated by Family History Department staff, but no changes are made without citing appropriate sources.
"Personal knowledge" is rarely if ever accepted, especially if you're trying to correct 16th century information. Incredibly, some have tried citing personal knowledge of events that occurred hundreds of years before their birth.
So, if you find misinformation in the Ancestral File, don't be irritated. Submit a correction.
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