Ancestry.com Census Corrections

[cynthiadaigle]

Some of you, like me, have some type of subscription to Ancestry.com. Occasionally, you are lucky enough to find the person you are searching for only to discover he is NOT on the census image you are directed to, OR the name is so off the wall that it's a miracle you found him at all.

You can help other researchers to avoid your aggravation by using the Correction and Comment section found on the right of the index summary of the name you have chosen. You can add a name variation (correct spelling) that will come up in the index. You can also notify Ancestry that the person you seek is not on the correct page.

Now, why, you might ask, should you spend your time correcting information for free, that you have to pay dearly for each year. Call it volunteer work, doing a good deed or whatever fits. Researchers will thank you for it and there will be a place for you in genealogy heaven

Just one more thing, please, be sure you are correct.

[Alexa]

Thanks for the suggestions, Cynthia. I've encountered the problem of being directed to a page and the person isn't there several times but didn't know how to tell them about it.

Why correct it? To save others (and maybe yourself) from experiencing the same "discovery" in the future.

Incidentally, Cynthia, I was just looking at your LEBLANC listings (my paternal lines) at Ancestry and it directed me to your website, which in turn directed me here. I'm very grateful because I'm now using a new computer and lost all of my links in a computer crash last month when my 15-month-old computer bit the dust (a factory installation error that caused overheating and destroyed the hard drive). I was wondering how I was going to find all my old links without going through hours of trouble. Thanks for the help.

[Alexa]

Cynthia, you seem to know a bit about Ancestry.com, so I thought I'd mention my biggest gripe.

When searching for people, there are first name and surname boxes, however, they don't give results for just that surname, but also first names that are the same as the surname. For instance, I have the surnames: DAVID, GEORGE, RICHARD, ANTON, and several others that can be either a first name, middle name or surname. Why do they do this? I sometimes get a ridiculous amount of hits because they include people with the surname anywhere in their names, even when I give birth dates and places!!

It has gotten better, however. When I first began my genealogy searches back in the late 1990s, I used to get hits with GEORGE cities, towns, counties, etc., in my searches.

Any ideas or suggestions about this common name problem?

[cynthiadaigle]

Soooo sorry to hear about your crash. That must be a real mess. I haven't been cursed with that particular event yet and (fingers crossed) hope I never am.

In regards to your gripe about Ancestry. It sound like you are using the Global Search Engine. The one that brings up hits in all the various databases. Have you ever tried using wildcards in the first name box. Wildcards are asterick * or question mark ?
They can't be used in the ranked search but they can in the exact search.

If that doesn't work, try the individual database search engines. Yours is a problem I haven't come across yet so I really haven't experimented with finding a solution.

My biggest gripe about ancestry is the One World Tree. I'm not sure that it is clear to everybody that these so called "records" are taken from files like mine that have been submitted to Rootsweb or Ancestry and are not necessarily reliable. Not only did Ancestry help themselves to our genealogy information to use in a site that they are making money from, but they have it set up so that people can change the information if they think it's not correct. It's a big mess. Use it as a guideline but not as actual fact.

Ancestry paid subscription has gotten much better over the years. Like you, I subscribed when it was in it's infancy. It was $60. a year back then and there was hardly anything on it. Now I find good information very often.

Here's a tip that has helped me find people in census. Try searching using their first name but no surname and fill in everything else you know about them IF their first name is fairly distinctive.

Another tip - if you find someone in one census, make a note of their neighbors and if you can't find your person in another census, try searching on the neighbors. Sometimes you get lucky.

Good luck in your searches.