Can I change FAG Source citation to match vital records?

Question

The vital records for Hannah Bates say her birth year is 1787. The FAG citation lists birth year as 1786 and it shows up on my suggestion page. The headstone is illegible and I sent a request to the cite manager last week to see if he could change the info. Since I hadn't heard back I got daring and changed the citation to read 1787. The link still goes to the gravesite ok. At first I changed it as a test. Then afterwards I wondered if it will create more data problems? Thank you for your help, Cheri

Comments

My preference is to add a note at the end of the Findagrave citation (copied from the memorial) to describe the discrepancy if the information at Findagrave is incorrect and to note that I requested an edit to the memorial's data. If I receive a message that the data has been corrected, I then remove my note from the citation.

I don't believe that editing the citation from Findagrave will result in a suggestion. However, unless you mark current suggestion as corrected or false, it will remain on the suggestions report as long as the data discrepancy exists.

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Thank you Lindy! I'll do that. I appreciate your help! Have a great day!

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Yes, add a note, please don't change citations of sources. I had someone recently change a source's transcription so as it would fit in with a merge they then proposed! The whole episode went pear shaped!  So yes, please do add a note and leave the citation be, and if you haven't already, also add your vital record source too :)

Thank you so much for asking before doing this ... awesome!  & appreciated 

Answer 1

I don't believe it will cause an error, but anyone who checks the Find A Grave page (provided that they don't change it) will see that it says she was born 1786. What I normally do is put in the biography words to the effect that although Find A Grave lists her date of birth as 1786, in the vital records her date of birth is 1787. Then I follow that with references to both sources.

Comments

Thank you Lucy! I'll do that too! I appreciate your help also! Hope you have a great day!