inline citation 1950 census points to inaccessible library link

Question

Hello

I found the same suggestions for every profile in which I cited the 1950 census.
The link error is 966:

"The link is pointing to a page that doesn't work. There can be various reasons for the error. See the info column for the reported error. "

The only place I found to access the 1950 census for Idaho was a library link I was an online database I able to access through my local library with my library card.
Whether or not it is a link behind a paywall, the link was  accessible to me through my local library.

Is it preferable to not include a link to a web address that is not accessible to everyone, and instead simply state the source without a link to the web address?

I ask because there are numerous profiles with inline citations to ancestry links that are behind a paywall, and as I recall we are advised to not use paywall links unless we have found no other sources which are freely accessible to all.

An example of the same error on all the 1950 census inline citations (via library access):
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bennett-36710

Answer 1

It is available on FamilySearch for free.  https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6XKK-D7L2

Comments

Thanks for responding C. Mulyck.
I did go to familysearch first because it was the only link showing up in google for the 1950 census that was not behind a paywall.
At the time I was trying to access the 1950 Idaho census for Benewah County Idaho, however it was not yet available at familysearch.

So I signed into my library account and found one of the genealogy databases the library subscribes to for its patrons that did provide the 1950 census for Benewah County in Idaho.

Answer 2

I have an American ancestry.com account and should be able to to see it, but I got an error message. It seems like you may have been using a heritage request website (where I do not have an account).

Below is your link address and I am wondering if there is a formatting error (probably by the website) because it seems there should be some kind of separation between the word "ancestry" and the word "heritagequest".

https://www.ancestryheritagequest.com/discoveryui-content/view/4740211:62308?_phsrc=Ffj7&_phstart=successSource&gsfn=Raymond&gsln=Manning&ml_rpos=1&queryId=5e7e9bbca19f9ae38ae86e9913072ae5

Comments

After playing with the URL, I found that if I remove the word "heritagequest" then the webadreess works and lets me see the Manning source on ancestry.com

So in your example a working web address is ...

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/4740211:62308?_phsrc=Ffj7&_phstart=successSource&gsfn=Raymond&gsln=Manning&ml_rpos=1&queryId=5e7e9bbca19f9ae38ae86e9913072ae5

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As N Gauthier noted, the link is to Heritage Quest which holds a subset of Ancestry.com records.  Heritage Quest is frequently available from home via a local public library account.  After I logged into Heritage Quest, your example link opened without a problem.  It's easy to convert a Heritage Quest link to Ancestry and vice versa; the format is either ancestry.com or ancestryheritagequest.com - just add or remove 'heritagequest' from the URL depending on which site you wish to access.

In this particular case, it should be noted that the 1950 census is free on Ancestry.com to non-subscribers.  The user does need to have registered for a a free account and log in.  For those wishing to search, the link is https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62308/

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The new WikiTree Browser Extension includes an option to "Redirect External Links" that includes an option to change Ancestry links to point to the user's preferred Ancestry domain (e.g., ancestry.ca or ancestry.com), but it doesn't seem to work on ancestryheritagequest.com.

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Thanks Ellen.  I have the Extension installed and did not know it whether or not it was working on ancestryheritagequest.

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Thank you N. Gauthier for taking the time to investigate!
I can make the corrections now by removing heritagequest.

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Thank you Kerry.  I wasn't quite sure how to describe the library's ancestryheritagequest database subscription - now I know: "Heritage Quest holds a subset of Ancestry.com records."

I had no idea the 1950 census was available at ancestry to nonsubscribers, nor that it is possible to register for a free account. to use whatever resources at ancestry are available to nonsubscribers.  Thank you for telling us.  No doubt I am not the only person who did not know.  Hoping the social security death index is available to non-subscribers too.  Last I looked for it at familysearch it was only updated through 2014.

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You're welcome Mary.  I'm sure you're correct that it is not well known that there a free records available.  Here's a page with their free indexed records:  https://www.ancestry.com/search/categories/freeindexacom/

Answer 3

It isn't necessarily an error - just a link to ancestry that, for those of us without a subscription, goes to a page that indicates it cannot be displayed.

Here's a link to the same census record at familysearch:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6XKK-D7LK

Comments

It's more insidious than that, Gaile. Ancestry has a number of different content packages for libraries, individual subscribers in specific countries, and probably other groups, each of which has its own Internet domain. The same content may be available on ancestryheritagequest.com, ancestry.com, and ancestry.ca (to name three of these), but subscribers can only see it via URLs that have the domain name that matches their subscription.

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Thank you Gaile.  I went to familysearch first to find the 1950 census records.  However the ones I needed were not yet there, at that time.

And thank you Ellen, for adding some clarity to what seems to be a variety of commercial enterprise packages ancestry makes available as subscriptions for libraries.

My local library also has a direct subscription to ancestry, however it can only be accessed when physically at the library, not online.  Only the  HertiageQuest subset of some ancestry records is available online.