FindMyPast Canterbury archives mistakes

[ElaineMT]

Does anyone have any experience of how long it takes for FindMyPast to correct transcription mistakes? I have many ancestors from Kent, and have found the Canterbury Archives Parish Records on FindMyPast invaluable, but recently revisiting some data have found that they have mistranscribed many baptism records from Eastry Parish as being Alkham parish. In some cases the transcription doesn't even tally with the correct image from the register, taking you to a different year altogether when you go to the image, so I pointed out the mistakes to them and they acknowledged there were errors, but it may go much further than just the ones I have come across. They said they would get back to me when the corrections had been made, and I was just wondering if anyone else has found them to be prompt at dealing with such errors.

Thanks for any input, am new to forums but thought I would flag this up in case anyone else uses Canterbury archives on FindMyPast.

 

[Tim]

Hi Elaine,

Welcome to the Forum. I think I recall something in Peter's NewsLetters about sites taking a long time to correct issues like this?

 

[Bryman]

I only have experience regarding errors for census records on FMP but I normally get an acknowledgement/acceptance of the error within a day or two and then the correction about a week later. I don't know if the Canterbury Archives might follow a similar timeline but one can but hope. However, keep in mind that they are doing a lot of other work right now so some delays could be introduced.

I am sure that several members would be interested to hear how things turn out, especially if unexpectedly quick or slow. Please keep us informed.

 

[peter]

I believe that findmypast are in the process of designing a new system for corrections, and someone mentioned that past corrections have reverted to the original version, although I haven't checked this.

What I'm hoping is that they'll institute a system that's similar to the one at Ancestry - but still with a degree of oversight.

 

[Pauline]

I submitted a couple of transcription corrections at FMP just a day or two ago and got a response on screen to say these would be looked at within 90 days.

 

[Tim]

90 Days?! wow, they used to be about 10 days or less for transcription changes.

And as Peter mentioned, if they moved to the same model as Ancestry then changes would be done quicker.

 

[ElaineMT]

Thanks for all your replies. FindMyPast contacted me on 1st April to say they were going to report the errors to their transcription team, and get back to me when corrected, so I will monitor how long it does take, and report back. I am a bit concerned though that they will simply correct the errors I pointed out without checking for further errors - it looks to me as if large chunks of Eastry registers are incorrectly transcribed as Alkham, and leads me to wonder if there aren't similar errors for other parishes. When they first introduced the Canterbury Archive collection it was possible to browse the archive, which, although long-winded, could actually be useful - I can't seem to find that option now, but if anyone else has tracked it down on the new site I would be interested to know. Now, if searching specifically for Eastry baptisms, (I used my ancestor Harrison Graham born 1839 Eastry as an example, because of slightly unusual forename) it doesn't return the entry if you enter Eastry as a keyword (because they have it down as Alkham), so it does pay to do a more global search and just enter Kent, or leave out keyword altogether: frustrating, though, for more common names where that might return many entries.