An index record in genealogy helps us to quickly access the records we need to
help climb our family tree. We use search forms key and information about a
ancestor and magically records appear right. Well not exactly but things are
about to change.
Howdy I'm Devon Noel Lee with family history fanatics where we help you learn
about DNA climb your family tree and write about your ancestors stories. Today
we're going to talk about family search and the new changes on that platform. An
index is only as good as the information that has been inputted into that index
if mistakes happen by the original record creator or the person who created
the index we often have trouble finding our ancestors. Now genealogists have had
some creative hacks to work around the trouble of our poorly index records but
family search is here to help us solve some of our problems on their platform
they recently announced that we can edit our indexes. Before I tell you how all of
this exciting new changes work be sure if this is your first time here to hit
the subscribe button and if you're a frequent viewer please hit the thumbs up
button. I'm really excited about the fact that we can start editing the indexes to
the images that we can find on family search. So right now you see here my
Great-Grandpa George Joseph Geiszler. Now make sure you pay attention to how his
last name is spelled that German name like many of the surnames
you have in your family can often get messed up. So Family Search has a census
record in which George his last name is a little bit garbled it looks like
grouse less this is not my grandfather's great grandfather's last name I know
that this is my great-grandfather because of all the family members in
this household. So where did the mistake in the last name come from?
Was it the indexer or was it the person who created the record. Well if you can
see right here above my head you can see that the last name really looks garbled
in fact hallelujah for the indexer of this record trying to figure out what
that last name might be. But again because I know the people in this
household and I also know where my grandfather was living at the time of
the census record and I found his neighbor's I also found the
name of the streets that he was living on I know this is his record. But can I
fix that name so that other people will know his last name is geiszler and not
whatever this is? Absolutely when you have attached
records in family surge or as you're browsing through them eventually you'll
see something that looks like this and there's a notification that tells you
that you can begin editing the information that you see on this screen.
For now you can only change the names either the first name the initial the
last name or the surname in the future we might be able to fix some of the
other information that appears on this screen in this index how exciting is
that. So here we are on Family Search we're going to walk through the process
of how you can start editing the information in the indexes for the
records you attach to your family. So I'm going to scroll down to the 1940 census
because that is the one that had the gar yeah grass.
I don't even know if you can even say that name but in any case we're gonna
come here and we're gonna click on edit now I can zoom in to my record and make
sure I'm on the right record there's George and his given name is George but
we're gonna change it Geisler. Now I need to select a reason was the reason
indexed incorrectly. No it wasn't indexed incorrectly the
poor indexer did the very best they could.
It is wrong in the document. So now I need to type a reason statement as to
why I believe this is to be accurate this change I'm going to make. So now I
have a reason statement I said the enumerator had wrote something it's hard
to read and then I went on to say that other supporting documents have his name
as George Geiszler. So now I need to highlight the full name I'm going to go
over here I clicked on the highlight full name and I'm going to drag a box
right there for George when. I release the mouse
button that I use to draw this box I can click Save. Now look at the magic it says
would you like to change all of the surnames all of the surnames at one
time for Evelyn Margie George and Robert. Absolutely so I'm gonna go ahead and put
apply now if at any time I didn't want the surnames to be applied to everyone
in the household I can just check and uncheck this box right here but I'm
going to go ahead and do it once isn't that awesome and press apply. Now
it may take a few minutes for that to take effect but, you will eventually see
that his name says George Geiszler but the previous edit is George grassless
and what happens this family search going to maintain the original indexed
entry as well as the changes that you make so now both names will be
searchable but I'm excited that finally we'll be able to in a few moments type
in George Geiszler into search look for the 1940 census and see his name spelled
in that way.Because this is a new feature if you're watching this video in
the fall of 2019 some of the records that you want to change cannot be
changed just yet so hang tight and know that the feature will be rolling out for
many of our records you just are gonna have to be just a little more patient
until the feature can be implemented in all the records who want to change. So I
really hope you will give editing indexed records a try and know that
sometimes if there's just a poorly index record because the indexer saw Merry
Maerry as in Merry Christmas instead of Mary as in the Virgin Mary then you can
just make that change as well so there's a lot of opportunities to fix the names
eventually we'll be able to fix all of the names and ultimately we'll be able
to fix some of the extra information as well. So go give this a try and come back
and tell us how it went let us know if there's any other
questions you have about editing your records on FamilySearch. Don't forget to
subscribe and check out some of these videos to help you learn more about your
family history.