Ancestry has more problems then just the marriages being wrong. I have brought it to their attention, but it appears they will do nothing to let the researcher know of it and in the end, it is going to confuse alot of people. The problem is with the birth indexes for Sheboygan & St. Croix Counties. When the state placed them on microfiche, an error was made and all of Sheboygan's births were listed as St. Croix county and vice versa. It is known at the state and also at the state library. Evidently Ancestry didn't know, so I wrote to them, explained the whole thing, told them they could contact Wisconsin Dept. of Vital records to confirm or check my website which has all of the births from the county level. I received no response. I then located a phone number for Ancestry and called them to explain to a real person. The response I received was and I quote "Well, that is what genealogy is all about". I didn't expect them to change the county names on all entries, but I did expect and still do feel a letter should be posted on their website explaining this to their researchers. I have already had one researcher come to Sheboygan looking for a surname that was found under Ancestry's births that should have been looking in St. Croix. There will be no telling how many people end up confused in the long run. Debie

Debie & Joe wrote: > Ancestry has more problems then just the marriages being wrong. I have > brought it to their attention, but it appears they will do nothing to let > the researcher know of it and in the end, it is going to confuse alot of > people. The problem is with the birth indexes for Sheboygan & St. Croix > Counties. When the state placed them on microfiche, an error was made and > all of Sheboygan's births were listed as St. Croix county and vice versa. > It is known at the state and also at the state library. Evidently Ancestry > didn't know, so I wrote to them, explained the whole thing, told them they > could contact Wisconsin Dept. of Vital records to confirm or check my > website which has all of the births from the county level. I received no > response. I then located a phone number for Ancestry and called them to > explain to a real person. The response I received was and I quote "Well, > that is what genealogy is all about". I didn't expect them to change the > county names on all entries, but I did expect and still do feel a letter > should be posted on their website explaining this to their researchers. I > have already had one researcher come to Sheboygan looking for a surname > that was found under Ancestry's births that should have been looking in St. > Croix. There will be no telling how many people end up confused in the long > run. > > Debie > > ==== WIGEN Mailing List ==== > Visit the Crawford County WIGenWeb Project Pages > http://users.rootsweb.com/~wicrawfo/crawford.htm Hi Debie, I appreciate your trying to straighten the birth index situation out. But not only is there a mixup with the Sheboygan/St. Croix county records -- it's all the "s" counties. Here is what is posted at the ARC's: The statewide index for counties that begin with an S are indexed under the wrong county name: St. Croix is indexed as Sauk Sauk is indexed as Sawyer Sawyer is indexed as Shawano Shawano is indexed as Sheboygan Sheboygan is indexed as St. Croix. So the problem is even bigger! -- Nance mailto:nsampson@spacestar.net