What do to when citations and image links don't match up?

Question

I have found a source for marriages on Family Search which keeps coming up during my root searches as several of the profiles I am working on are all from the same time and place so their marriages are all listed in this same source. The issue is that the indexing is off. When I find the couple and the citation for them specifically, then click on the link to view the record, the link goes to the incorrect page time and time again. Often the couple is on the image/page before or after the one the citation is linked to. I could use recommendations for what to add to the citation to encourage others get to the proper image so the sources are not accidentally removed by others in the future?

So far I have been adding this to the end of the citation:

[Incorrectly indexed as Image _ of _; See Image_of_ "insert url here" (access date).] Could this method be shortened?

Comments

Thank you for the added tag, Ellen. 

Answer 1

I think you are talking about the situation where FamilySearch's record index page takes you to the wrong image in the microfilm.

Once you find the correct image, go to the information tab for that image and copy the citation from the image page. Use that as your source.

If the image page is one that doesn't have a copyable citation, go to the URL bar and copy the URL for the image. (It may look something like https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9YBL-5GR ). Paste the URL into your reference citation (along with a descriptive citation, such as the one found on the FamilySearch record index page) in order to direct users to the correct image.

Comments

Oh how I wish it were that easy, Ellen. There is no citation information given with each image. Here is a link to a "hit" I get from my rootsearch of Sewall Labaree on Family Search. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F4DH-WLD

If you click on the image to the document for Sewall Labbaree, it takes you to the wrong image. The correct image is the next page, which is image 19 (he is on the right hand page near the top)...no citation info available.  

Edited: I have been adding extra info to the Family Search citation I get in the "hit" as I mentioned above, trying to redirect folks, it's just getting tedious.

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Profile is https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Labaree-14. You can see what I've added to the citation there.

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I have had this several times, so what I have done is use the citation as given, but I also add the link to the correct image.

On occasions where there is no given citation, I make one up using every detail I can gather from the page .. as with my great grand's marriage (where I added both the source as given by FS and the image as found by me).

<ref>[(url is here) Family Search] Image 559 of 579 Bishop's transcripts for Collegiate Church, Manchester Baptisms, burials and marriages 1828</ref>

The citation goes to image 564 https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NF82-Y3V

The actual entry I need is image 559 (entry 2507, bottom left)

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-XXD9-FC3?i=558

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Thanks, Melanie!

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The citation I would give for the marriage intentions of Sewel Labbaree and Sally Sawyer would be something like this:

"Maine Marriages, 1771-1907," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F4DH-WLD : 10 February 2018), Sewel Labbaree and Sally Sawyer, 21 Mar 1805; citing , reference ; FHL microfilm 10,807. Record image accessed at https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99N7-X4YK

The purple part is the citation provided on the record index page, with a little bit struck out because it was useless. The dark red part includes the URL that I copied from the page with the correct record image.

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Ellen, this is very helpful and will save me time and headaches, I like it! 

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Melanie, the profile of your GGM is stunning, so beautiful, she would be very proud!

Answer 2

Colleen, could you give an example of what you are referring to please?

Comments

Info is below, Marion, thanks for looking 

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The indexing has this proviso indicated 

This record may have come from this image. You may need to look through several surrounding images if it does not appear on this image.

sSo if you want the citation to direct you to the correct page, I think you can do what Ellen advised.

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So the link isn't necessarily going to link to the correct image, because the film hasn't been indexed yet.  Irritating when you come across that, I know - but just means they haven't got there yet.

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Ok, thanks for your help everyone. Appreciate the eyes on this. 

Answer 3

I see no reason to cite the finding aid (the index entry) instead of the thing it helped you find (the image):

FamilySearch Film # 007595352 Image 19 of 186 (Columbia, Maine, Town and vital records, 1796-1860): Mr. Sewel Labbaree & Miss Sally Sawyer, March 21, 1805. (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99N7-X4YK?i=18)

If the image had locators like page numbers and entry numbers, I'd include those in the citation, but there are none in this case.

If you want, you can add the microfilming information from the FS catalog entry (Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1955), but I generally omit it: it would not help anybody find the image if the link broke.

What I do generally include is a full transcription of the relevant entry:
Mr. Sewel Labbaree & Miss Sally Sawyer boath(??) of Plantation No. 22 was publishd March 21st 1805 in Columbia by Wm Buckmann T. Clerk

No, there isn't a button you can conveniently push to generate such a citation, but they're not that hard to write, especially once you realize that the order and format doesn't matter one whit, as long as all of the necessary details are there somewhere. (I know it's hard to override those decades of conditioning about manuals of style and rules and stuff, but you can do it!)

Comments

Hi J, I appreciate and am intrigued by your comment and have been mulling over your alternate suggestion. I am currently honing my rootsearch skills for the source-a-thon and I am very new to citations so I enjoy using the WikiTree guides and videos. The Rootsearch/Family Search "grab-n-go" method is nice and convenient and I have assumed that the index entries are not likely to change...is that a naive assumption to be making about Family Search? I've also often wondered if there is a way to search by film#? Still lots to learn...

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FS wants a machine-readable version of historical records, so they treat the index entry as the primary source. This is a misuse of the index and displays a fundamental misunderstanding of the use of evidence, but it means that the index _links_ are unlikely to change. They have deployed a preliminary version of index corrections, though, so the index _entries_ can change.

(Citing the index instead of the image is like citing the card catalog instead of the book.)

Yes, you can search by film number: go to Search - Catalog and choose "Film/Fiche Number". It'll find most things using either the microfilm or digital film number. Alternately, if you know that what you have is a digital film number, you can go straight to the film by plugging it into the film viewer URL: https: //www. family search. org /search /film /NNN (minus the spaces, of course), where NNN is the film number, padded with leading zeros as needed to make nine digits.

(Using the film viewer URL, you can view uncataloged films, too. Yes, there are films online at FamilySearch that aren't in the catalog. I think God Himself is unsure what all is available on FS's site; certainly nobody at FS has a clear idea.)

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Thank you so much for sharing this with me, it is very enlightening! I often find films with no citations/indexing and this will resolve the citation conundrum for me nicely...I was able to apply your method to a source during source-a-thon. I'm a little confused about where the full transcription might go. Would appreciate it if you could have a look and provide feedback as to how you would complete/improve this? https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Beal-504

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My usual format for transcriptions is below the citation, with a colon (WT markup for "indent/tab") at the beginning of each line (to get around WT's insane appetite for line breaks):

FamilySearch Film # 007596957 Image 19 of 731 (York, Maine, Town and vital records, 1717-1889): death of Samuel Beal son of Manwaren Beal and his wife Sarah, Feb 6, 1727/8. (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99N8-9CPG?i=18).
:Feb'ry.6.1727/8. Samuel Beal Son of Manwaren Beal by his Wife Sarah died. Aged 3Y'.10M'.&11Ds.

For a one-liner like this, though, you could just put it on the same line as the rest of the citation, and set it off with italics:

FamilySearch Film # 007596957 Image 19 of 731 (York, Maine, Town and vital records, 1717-1889): death of Samuel Beal son of Manwaren Beal and his wife Sarah, Feb 6, 1727/8. (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99N8-9CPG?i=18). ''Feb'ry.6.1727/8. Samuel Beal Son of Manwaren Beal by his Wife Sarah died. Aged 3Y'.10M'.&11Ds.''