Tuesday, July 17, 2012

1940 U.S. Census Index Comparisons - Post 3: Seaver in California,Part 1

I proposed a methodology for evaluating the accuracy and completeness of the 1940 United States Census indexes on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org in 1940 U.S. Census Index Comparisons - Post 1: Methodology. 

In 1940 U.S. Census Index Comparisons - Post 2: Carringer in California, I displayed my comparison tables and found that Ancestry had 8 more Carringer entries than FamilySearch, and my judgment was that Ancestry was more correct on 7 of them.

For my second example, I am going to use the Seaver surname in California.  I'm going to do this in two parts, since there were 125 matches on Ancestry.com and 147 matches on FamilySearch.  This post will discuss the entries found only in Ancestry, and the next post will discuss the entries found only on FamilySearch.

Of the 125 matches on Ancestry.com, there were 6 names, in five families, that were not on FamilySearch:




Taking them one at a time:

*  Frances Seaver (ED 19-247, Page 11A) is indexed as Seaver on Ancestry, and Searer on FamilySearch.  



If I was indexing it, I would have said it was Searer.  After looking on the page for examples of "v" and "r" to choose.  IMHO, FamilySearch got it right.

*  Carl A. Seaver and Edith L. Seaver (ED 60-273, page 11A) is indexed as Seaver on Ancestry, and Deaver on FamilySearch.  



If I was indexing it, I would have said Reaver.  So, both get it wrong, IMHO.

*  Ralph C. Seaver (ED 42-10, page7B) is indexed as Seaver on Ancestry, and Weaver on FamilySearch.



This one is really difficult because of the letter or check mark overwriting the first letter.  Looking at the letter under the overwrite, I think it is Weaver.  I vote for FamilySearch.

*  Ella O. Seaver (ED 30-117, Page 1B) is indexed as Ella on FamilySearch.



The "O" for Ella is obviously an indicator that she gave the information, and it's not a middle initial.  However, I can see why it might have been indexed as a middle name, since her daughter also had the"gave the information" mark (and no middle initial in the index).  FamilySearch got it right, IMHO.

*  Cora L. Seaver (born 1873 in Indiana) was indexed in Ancestry.com as residing in California, but she actually resided in Kokomo, Howard, Indiana.  This is an Ancestry linking error, I think.

There are also conflicts on names spelling and ages on some entries, including:

*  Mennie E. Seaver (ED 1-37, page 3B) was indexed as "Minnie" on FamilySearch.



I think that this is a tossup - there's no dot for an "i," but there is no loop for an "e". Her name is almost certainly Minnie.  No decision here.

*  Mrs. B.D. Seaver (ED 60-874, page 3B) was indexed as "B.D." on FamilySearch.



I'm guessing that FamilySearch put Mrs. in the Title field.  I'm not going to ding either for this one.

*  Margarete Seaver (ED 60-174, page 64B) was indexed as "Margurite" on FamilySearch.



The name above looks to me like Marguriite.  She is one of the sampling lines, and the name in the sampling line is clearly "Marguerite."  Both get it wrong in my book. 

*  Lloyd H. Seaver and Hugh H. (ED 60-6, page 17A) are indexed as Lloyd W. and Hugh W. on FamilySearch.



I'm with FamilySearch on this one.  Check out the H in Hugh's first name.  

*  Olif W. Seaver (ED 38-444, page 61B) was indexed as "Clif" on FamilySearch.



I'm with FamilySearch on this one.

*  Grorge Seaver (ED 16-848, page 14A) is indexed as "George" on FamilySearch.  


It is easily "George" (just a missed typo on Ancestry) so FamilySearch gets this one.

*  Charles Seaver Junior (ED 60-197, page 14B) is indexed as Charles Seaver (probably with Junior in the Title field).  I'm not going to ding anyone here.

*  Gery Edgar Seaver (ED 33-58, page 9A) is indexed as Gary Edgar Seaver on FamilySearch.



FamilySearch got this one right, I think!  

*  Sally Seaver (ED 41-14, page 7B) is indexed as born in 1939 on Ancestry, ad born in 1940 on FamilySearch.  The entry says she is age 9/12, so born in 1939.  Ancestry wins this one.

Note:  FamilySearch Indexers were instructed to use "0" as the age for ages less than one year.

So the partial tally for Seaver in California to date is Ancestry= 1, FamilySearch = 7, Both wrong = 2, No decision = 3.

I will do the Seaver entries only in FamilySearch in the next post.  

There was a comment on the Carringer post about dinging the provider for each person, rather than for just the one written surname.  I look at it this way - if I search for any of those persons, the wrong surname is indexed for it, and the index is incorrect.  My choice!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/07/1940-us-census-index-comparisons-post-3.html

Copyright(c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

2 comments:

GeneGinny said...

Family Search has a separate column for "title," so the "Mrs." in your one listing won't show on the FS Results page, just on the full page summary of the indexed columns.

Anonymous said...

This is SOO interesting, it belongs in your top 10 best blogs of the week, (altho I know you don't list your own) it definitely belongs on the list. Fascinating!