I recently visited FamilySearch.org’s beta site and what a mess; this entire project needs to be reassessed; it is riddled with errors; natural man made disasters!

FamilySearch.org has begun the process of transcribing the data from their microfilm collection into an online searchable database. Here are the errors that I have spotted thus far:

• Surnames – In cases where a birth record does not contain a child’s surname, the transcriber assumed the child took the mother’s surname name; this is a huge mistake and you will only catch it if you know the child.
• Given Names – Males are assumed as females and vice versa based on the name; the transcriber has assumed the original registrar made an error and/or has assumed the name is gender specific.
• Misspellings – Surname misspellings are being corrected and should not be as the error is often carried over onto other official documents and/or it can become the name they continue using. The corrections should be written in brackets if being done or mentioned as a side note.
• Dates – Dates of birth are incorrect in some case off by years
• Informant / Witness Roles  not defined – Witnesses and / or informants to births are being listed as the father;  another huge mistake. Sometimes the informant is a friend, the person present at birth, a relative, the midwife or the person in charge of the child; the information could be anyone but we don’t know what their role is becasue this information is not being provided to us via text or a link to view the actual document.
• Certification – We are only given the certificate number but not the letters that go with it (i.e. “55” instead of the entire certificate number “LE55”). The letters are a must as it is the actual certificate number. It is also useful for distinguishing between two or more women having the same name and giving birth in the same year. It also helps to clarify the data found in the indexes.
• Locations - Districts, towns and parishes are not correctly matched. For example, you may see “Spanish Town, Westmoreland, Jamaica” and if you don’t know any better, you will take this as fact.
• The district of registration is being mistaken for the place of birth and they are not always one and the same.
• Missing Documents – There is no image (link to view the actual document) so we are denied the opportunity to see valuable information; date, name, occupation, residence, parents, actual age at christening, parents married or not, mother’s maiden name, witnesses, informant etc; confirm the data transcribed.

I use Ancestry and Family Search (LDS mormon genealogy site) religiously; I could not do without them and truly appreciate their efforts. I am extremely grateful to FamilySearch.org for making their online data available for free; they are not another money grabbing genealogy corporation. However, I am now forced to use them as I use my own site (CaribbeanAncestry.com), with great caution; as long as the information being presented is not supported with its documentation (so I can verify for myself), I must take it as hearsay or an assumption; I cannot take the transcriber’s interpretation as fact.

I have sent a letter to Family Search regarding the errors; I strongly suggest that  you do not use their beta site (http://fsbeta.familysearch.org) until they correct these errors and take steps to ensure they will not be repeated.

Please share the experiences (positive or negative) that you have had with these two  sites. Also share your suggestions and tips that we can use in the meanwhile to get around these issues.

In the days of old, family histories were passed down over the years by word of  mouth without error;  I’ll continue to use my mother’s oral history for my family tree research; modern day resources for genealogical research has got nothing on my mamma!

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Written by Antoinette Forsythe Copyright © All Rights Reserved, Image Credit: Secret… by Vince Alongi Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License

Once again Facebook told us they are going to improve the site and give us full/more control over our privacy settings, instead we got more of what wasn’t needed and less of what we actually asked for, not only that but we got robed of a few goodies in the process.

Their idea of increasing our control to privacy meant: (1) All of Facebook can see our Friends List. (2) The Friends of my Friends (who may very well be our enemies) can now add us as a friend. (3) Our Fan pages can be seen by everyone so gone are the days when we could be an undercover stalker. (4) When we remove data (photos, emails, comments etc) from any part of Facebook the data still remains; according to them “removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time (but will not be available to others).” Based on my personal experience that period is well over a year and is still available to applications etc; that is how I discovered this flaw. (5) Every single action we take throughout the entire site is displayed for all our friends to see on the Home page; if we wanted all our friends to know something wouldn’t we post it in our status? (6) Regardless of our photo and video privacy settings, people outside of our friends list can access them; tag tag tag, that’s what happens when you tag. (7) Pending friends can view your updates so all someone has to do to see your updates is to send you a friend request.

There was a time when we could protest by creating a group, clearly those days are over. Now every time they make changes we protest for a while but then we adapt because they ignore us. At face value, Facebook ain’t what it used to be; I now call it Fakebook.

Their Privacy Policy Explained
1 Privacy

Your privacy is very important to us. We designed our Privacy Policy to make important disclosures about how you can use Facebook to share with others and how we collect and can use your content and information. We encourage you to read the Privacy Policy, and to use it to help make informed decisions.

2 Sharing Your Content and Information
You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. In addition:

1. For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (“IP content”), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (“IP License”). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.
2. When you delete IP content, it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle bin on a computer. However, you understand that removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time (but will not be available to others).”

Written by Antoinette Forsythe Copyright © All rights Reserved, Image Credit: Facebook Security by smemon87, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.