by AndrewA » Wed May 08, 2013 10:41 pm
I am not begrudging ancestry or any other company making an obscene amount profit, I am also the first to recognise that the commercial rewards from publishing records and archives has saved millions of records from the fire or bin, but it would be nice to see some of that money spent on correcting the data.
If ancestry was the only source for census data, then I would whole heartedly agree with you that not making corrections is harming the researchers. However, Ancestry is not the only source for these records, far from it, infact other companies and non profit organisations have far more accurate data than Ancestry does. I see this time and time again when searching, yes Ancestry might have the nicer features and bells and whistles, but whats the point when the data is so wrong it will never return the records required?
A good example, I spent weeks trying to locate Elizabeth (SMITH) Heath and her children in the 1891 census using Ancestry, it wasnt until I decided to go to the library and used Find My Past, that I found the census entry first time, as they had the correct transcription, where as Ancestry had the HEATH's listed as CASTLE, which was the name of the family living next door.
It is in the interest for Ancestry to have as accurate data as possible, especially if the want to give new people a good experience, too many people using ancestry have been put off almost instantly as they find zero records of the people they are looking for. If Ancestry they want the users to correct the data, then they should reward that in some way.
So I ask question again, why should I waste my time and effort correcting mistakes on Ancestry without any reward, when I am simply improving a service offered by a commercial company, who will benefit financially from the collective efforts of people making corrections for them for free.
I will not be blackmailed or pressured into making corrections with the threat that I am harming other researchers and hurting the field of Genealogy, especailly when that data is readily available in numerous other places.
Hit a Brickwall? Have you lost all trace of someone? Do not despair, simply make a note they were abducted by aliens! Don't believe in aliens? No problem, just write them off as having disapeared in a time portal