Accurate Info on Free Sites

[Quentin]

Could someone please tell me if there could be mistakes on the Fmly S......ch site. I have very strong evidence that an ancestor who is shown as born at the right place/time then died some 9 years later. If he did, then I wouldn't be here. Because of this I have gone around and around in circles. Just because film nos. are given etc, I have always thought it was accurate but if its possible there are inaccuracies then I would like to know. (I realise that transcribers are human) but just would like an opinion. Thanks. Quentin

[Bertie]

The short answer, and most definitely, is YES: I have seen a few errors not just in the transcription relating to numbers, dates, names etc. but also in the Parish to which the event was attibuted!

The advice always given is to get hold of the film via your local LDS centre and check out the record yourself [which sometimes contains additional information to the basic details on the LDS extract]. Good luck

[Coromandel]

The data on FamilySearch have come from many different sources and their reliability varies a great deal. The most notoriously inaccurate are member-submitted entries on the IGI, on old FamilySearch. At the other end of the spectrum, new FamilySearch includes scans of many original parish registers. Perhaps if you could fill in a bit of detail on which bit of FamilySearch you found the entry in, we might be able to give more specific advice.

The fact that the IGI contains baptisms and marriages but very few burials has led to not a few wrong family trees being drawn up . . . you certainly wouldn't be the first to discover that a person you thought was your ancestor died as a child.

[Peter Goodey]

Apart from the few areas where they have scans available, you should treat the site as an index only. The index is to a film number which you can then order and examine for yourself.