As you will be aware there is a problem with many of the new records added last week to the Family Search "England, Bristol Parish Registers, 1538-1900" database as part of the Indexing project to which I was a contributor. A high proportion, probably many tens of thousands of the new records have been incorrectly attributed to Abbotts Leigh (Holy Trinity). I reported the problem to Family Search telling them the scale of the problem and had a reply below which shows they don't seem to understand and says they are not going to do anything about it at the moment!:- "The UK Bristol project is currently showing as completed and is going through the end completion process. Once a project is completed FamilySearch does not, at this time, have the functionality in place to accept corrections or additions to its individual database entries without reloading the entire collection. However, a future feature is under consideration that would accept corrections or additions to the searchable index. Both the original index and the correction to the index would be searchable, thus preserving the ability to locate original indexes and images as well as the corrected or added patron entries. We hope when this feature is in place you will contact us and give us the correct information that you feel should be on these records. " Someone suggested that Family Search are more likely to take notice if lots of people complain about the problem so can I ask as many of you as possible to contact Family Search to complain about the problem and giving examples of incorrect parish. Below is the email address and the feedback web page. support@familysearch.org https://help.familysearch.org/help/contact I have found many family events in the latest batch and even when the parish is obviously incorrect there is usually much more useful info than in the equivalent FreeBMD entry. Chris Jefferies Cheltenham Glos

On 11 Feb 2011 at 10:58, Chris Jefferies wrote: > As you will be aware there is a problem with many of the new records > added last week to the Family Search "England, Bristol Parish > Registers, 1538-1900" database as part of the Indexing project to > which I was a contributor. A high proportion, probably many tens of > thousands of the new records have been incorrectly attributed to > Abbotts Leigh (Holy Trinity). I reported the problem to Family Search > telling them the scale of the problem and had a reply below which > shows they don't seem to understand and says they are not going to do > anything about it at the moment!:- > At risk of being stoned to death, figuratively speaking, for an observation that will probably offend some people, could I suggest that FamilySearch has a long history of either not understanding problems or being unwilling to do anything about them, particularly when it concerns records from the UK? I have never yet in the past been able to get a sensible answer out of them, so I gave up trying. It seems to me there are two problems..... 1) The LDS Church does NOT undertake genealogical research and transcribing of data for the same reasons that we non-members - which means the vast majority of family historians - do. They do it principally to support their own religious beliefs, which I certainly don't intend to take issue with here. Furthermore, I tend to doubt that many of the programmers in Utah are actually genealogists and family historians at all. They are probably clean-cut, wide-eyed eager young Mormons who are told they are doing an important job for their church and the interests of the wider world of family history simply pass them by or are ignored. I suspect they don't understand why it is so important to us to get the parish right, even less do they care. 2) They are based in a deeply insular and parochial part of America and probably know less about the geography of the UK than does even the average American !!! And, before the bricks start coming my way, let me say that I happen to know someone who is the head of an LDS Family History Centre in England and she agrees with me. She told me once that hardly anybody in a senior position in Utah even owns a passport! -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE

Dear Roy, Thankyou for your list message, it had me smiling from ear to ear! and even made me laugh! I so totally agree with you. I have corresponded with the LDS before over mistakes I have located, and more recently with Ancestry regarding one person's donated family tree CD they have published (without checking the integrity of the data supplied), which I and one other researcher, know wholeheartedly to be completely fictitious. With both websites I have always received responses which make you wonder if they've even read the original question! Doggedly I replied the last time out of pure frustration, and finally got a slightly better explanation, but it then prompted a whole lot more questions! So I gave up. I would be interested to hear of others experiences with Ancestry memberships. Originally, I had a subscription to Ancestry.com because in those days it was the only site they had! I have since received lots of special offers from them and recently one for a huge discount off membership. The email arrived on the same day the offer expired so I complained! They said it was an offer for those on Ancestry.com and that I should be on Ancestry.com.au! So they have now changed me to that sub list. So it seems different lists are receiving different offers, and what's more, the special deals they offer us on the "com.au" web mail list seem to assume we are all Australians looking for our convict roots! They completely miss the fact that it's a worldwide multicultural marketplace and that many of us living 'down under' might actually be looking for American roots!!!!! My Mum is still on Ancestry .com so it will be interestign tomonitor what she gets in her mail compared to me just down the road! Amanda Christchurch New Zealand ----- Original Message ----- From: "Roy Stockdill" <roy.stockdill@btinternet.com> To: <bristol_and_somerset@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2011 12:18 AM Subject: Re: [B&S] Response from Family Search about errors in new Bristoldata. > On 11 Feb 2011 at 10:58, Chris Jefferies wrote: > >> As you will be aware there is a problem with many of the new records >> added last week to the Family Search "England, Bristol Parish >> Registers, 1538-1900" database as part of the Indexing project to >> which I was a contributor. A high proportion, probably many tens of >> thousands of the new records have been incorrectly attributed to >> Abbotts Leigh (Holy Trinity). I reported the problem to Family Search >> telling them the scale of the problem and had a reply below which >> shows they don't seem to understand and says they are not going to do >> anything about it at the moment!:- > > > At risk of being stoned to death, figuratively speaking, for an > observation that will > probably offend some people, could I suggest that FamilySearch has a long > history of > either not understanding problems or being unwilling to do anything about > them, > particularly when it concerns records from the UK? I have never yet in the > past been > able to get a sensible answer out of them, so I gave up trying. > > It seems to me there are two problems..... > > 1) The LDS Church does NOT undertake genealogical research and > transcribing of > data for the same reasons that we non-members - which means the vast > majority of > family historians - do. They do it principally to support their own > religious beliefs, which > I certainly don't intend to take issue with here. > > Furthermore, I tend to doubt that many of the programmers in Utah are > actually > genealogists and family historians at all. They are probably clean-cut, > wide-eyed eager > young Mormons who are told they are doing an important job for their > church and the > interests of the wider world of family history simply pass them by or are > ignored. I > suspect they don't understand why it is so important to us to get the > parish right, even > less do they care. > > 2) They are based in a deeply insular and parochial part of America and > probably > know less about the geography of the UK than does even the average > American !!! > And, before the bricks start coming my way, let me say that I happen to > know > someone who is the head of an LDS Family History Centre in England and she > agrees > with me. She told me once that hardly anybody in a senior position in Utah > even owns > a passport! > > -- > Roy Stockdill > Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer > Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: > www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html > > "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, > and that is not being talked about." > OSCAR WILDE > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > BRISTOL_AND_SOMERSET-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >