Challenge of the week: Clean up as many locations as possible

Question

Hi WikiTreers,

Will you join our "Data Doctors" Challenge of the week?

This week's challenge focuses on cleaning up the location fields on profiles.

Aleš has prepared a report of profiles from around the tree that have potential errors in their locations. These are usually simple typos that are easy to fix. But a thinking genealogist needs to give them a quick "reality check" and consider the intent of the original member and the sources before making any changes. Will you try some?

Click here for the list.

After making a change, click the "challenge tracker" button and then the edit the status. This will record a point. The member with the most points at 11:59pm EDT on Sunday night will get the badge and the bragging rights. But we'll all benefit from a neater, cleaner shared tree.

If you're participating, please post here to let us know. It's nice to cheer each other on. Or post if you have any questions about how to participate.

Thanks for helping!

Real-time tracking results: See your stats 
alongside other participants here.

UPDATE:

Top 10 Participants

• Linda R. Green (Cox) - 1,172
• Karen D. Harbert - 882
• Joyce Rivette - 830
• Anonymous A. Anonymous - 701
• Janet E. Berkman - 433
• Jo M. Gill - 361
• Deb G. Love - 310
• Cindi L. Clark - 309
• NJ J. Penny - 287
• Edie A. Kohutek - 223

For more results see:

• By Participant
• By Error Type
• By Participant and Error Type
• By Error Type and Day
• By Participant and Day
• By Hour

Comments

Challenge is active.

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If I note what you specifically mention you are working on and you haven't added it to the spreadsheet I'm adding it in to avoid multiple people working on the same thing.

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Anyone else having problems with the pages loading tonight.   I keep getting the connection timed out error.    I'm clicking from  DBE ErrorList Challenge 22 Location

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YES, thank you Cindi for asking this. I can't get to status to indicate what I did and also I can't see "your stats page" to see how many I did so far.

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That's the same thing I am seeing.   I also tried to look at my own suggestions, so I tried looking at suggestions for other profiles too.

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The Challenge Tracker doesn't seem to be working. Can anything be done to get it back in working order?

Thanks.

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It is back in working order.

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I’ve never tried a challenge before but I think I can handle working on a few in 610 changing the upper case place of birth. If any of them pull up the same error in 640 I’ll change the also. But is there anyone who would be able to offer some guidance if needed?

Thanks

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well, you could post here or try the chat in the spreadsheet.

Answer 1

Spreadsheet updated.

http://tinyurl.com/Doctorsheet 

Livechat active there. You access it like this.. http://prntscr.com/gybz36

If you go to the week challenge tab and color in what you are working on we will all know. I do a light color for working, darker for done.

Comments

Thanks Steven!

 

~Mindy

Answer 2

I'm up for it :)

Answer 3

I'll give it a shot. I usually go to the 1700-1799 column first.

Comments

Steven, a quick tip.  Commas are not allowed in the first name, preferred name, middle name or current last name fields.  

You can see how I dealt with the challenge on this profile where you took out as many "or" as you could.  Because it is a German person, it is common for them not to have middle names, but two first names in the first name field (same with French).

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Speers_or_Spears-1

Thanks :-)

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That "Speers or Spears" birth name is kinda messy though. For it to be correct one is going to have to be chosen.

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Only the PM can change the LNAB

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I was confused about that because I was correcting illegal separator errors but when I pulled them up, there was no commas. So I was putting commas in all those "mistakes" and discovered at the end of the challenge that commas weren't allowed. I lived in Germany for many years and I know about the two first names being quite common. I just didn't know how to fit that into the WT format. As for middle names, both my sons have two middle names so I know it has to fit in there somehow...

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Steven, I use the nickname field a lot for these errors because I don't know if it is a first and middle name or two possible first names, etc.  The nickname field is one of the few that allows the comma.  So I use it as a "dumping ground" for all of the extra names.  Then it is up the PM or the researcher to clean up further once they have the needed sources.

Answer 4

Just a little tip / advice I'd like to give, because I've noticed corrections on some of the fictive profiles I keep an eye on.

When you see a profile which has a category like "[[Category: <name of falsificator> Fraud]]" or "[[Category: <name of Falsificator> Fabrications]]" and is Uncertain, Disproven or Questionable, there is not really much point in trying to fix errors on it. It's not a bad thing - but really, it would be more productive to work on a valid profile.

Of course, in the case of a Parents, Marriage, Date.... challenge, DON'T touch profiles marked as disproven, or questionable and part of a fraud category. The errors should not be fixed for these profiles, there are part of what make the profiles stand out as "wrong" and we don't want to lend them credibility by making the data on them appear valid.

And if you find sources that confirm the profile represents someone who really existed and can be restored, please post your findings on G2G!

Comments

Should those suggestions be marked as a 'false error' to prevent people from removing important information?

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This is what I usually do when I see them surface in error reports, yes.

Thank you.

Answer 5

I'll work on it as I can. Have my son's wedding coming up this week.  I'll start on Error 640  in 1700-1799.

Comments

I don't remember where I left off using the tracker, so I am going to check my work tomorrow on the 640 errors, 1700-1799.  I've completed Rose-10691 through Wiest-5.  They will all be on my contributions list.  Hopefully the tracker will be up tomorrow.  Yawn!

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Still working on 640 errors, 1700-1799.

Answer 6

I'll try to get some done this week.

Answer 7

I can do a few this week.

Answer 8

I'm in.   Maybe I can get a few more done than I did last week.  That was a tough one.

Answer 9

I will give this a shot. I'm also trying to source profiles, so I will divide my time between the two.

Comments

Since the tracker is down, I completed these 20 this evening:

Removed “Unknown” from Birth (and in some cases, Death) field:

1. Corris-44
2. Craft-2180

3. Cragun-13

4. Credille-7
5. Crowder-1313
6. Davidson-5612

7. De Wet-675
8. Dill-1249

9. Douglas-5813

10. Dunne-748

11. Emerton-116

12. Estep-741

13. Fast-280

14. Fenzl-9

15. Fenzl-10

16. Finley-918

17. Fridell-8

18. Fudge-414

19. Fulk-626

20. Fulk-627

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Another set of 20 done:

Removed “Unknown” from Birth (and in some cases, Death) field:

1. Fulk-630
2. Fulk-632

3. Fulk-635

4. Fulk-636
5. Fulk-639
6. Fulk-641

7. Fulk-642
8. Fulk-643

9. Fulk-650

10. Fulk-653

11. Fulk-657

12. Fulk-658

13. Fulk-659

14. Fulk-662

15. Fulk-667

16. Geshko-1

17. Gill-5821

18. Gilman-1114

19. Gilman-1115

20. Gilman-1116

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The tracker is down again this morning. I completed the following. Just a note - most of these are listed as incorrect because Northern Ireland didn't officially exist until 1922 and the birth/death is listed as Northern Ireland before that year. The problem I see here is that many of the sources (like the Ireland census records) list Northern Ireland as the location even before 1922 - perhaps they are listing the location as it is now. Anyway I hope I don't upset any of the profile managers. Should I continue with these?

612 Location too early in birth location – corrected profiles:

1 Allen-13346 Maggie Dalrymple Allen

2 Douthard-3 Thomas Douthard

3 Lindsay-2351 John Lindsay

4 Lindsay-2353 Mariah Jane Lindsay

5 Newell-957 William Hamilton Newell

6 Kerr-2279 Robert Rea Kerr

7 Sinclair-3434 Annie Sinclair

8 McMullan-193 Mary Jane McCullough

9 Barr-917 Mary Eliza Barr

10 Bailie-52 Thomas Bailie

11 Carroll-3073 William Carroll

12 Freeman-6068 David Freeman

13 Freeman-6067 David Freeman

14 Moore-19161 Alice Clements

15 Moore-19162 Annie Moore

16 Moore-19164 Florence Moore

17 Moore-19166 Frances Moore

18 Moore-19168 Frank Moore

19 Moore-19174 Maud Moore

20 Moore-19176 Sophia Moore

Answer 10

I'm working on 639 Wrong character in death location for orphaned profiles.

Answer 11

I'm in! Keep trying til I get it right!

Comments

If you run into any questions, Victoria, you can ask them on the comments section of this post.

Answer 12

I'm in for this one! :P

Answer 13

Hope to have a little more time this week to do more than I have been able to do last few weeks.

Answer 14

I'm in again, working on Scottish profiles.

Answer 15

Louisiana!

Answer 16

Starting with 601 - 1800's Virginia

Answer 17

Working on a few dealing with captializing birth and death locations that are all in lower case! Thanks for the challenge.

Answer 18

I'm in for the first time at all. Let's give it a try to change some Death locations in upper cases in normal cases

Answer 19

I noticed in the excellent country data posted by Magnus recently that there were some profiles in "Kingdom of Hungary" and "Kingdom of Denmark". I'm not sure whether these should simply be Hungary and Denmark, or how to find them though.

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/504101/know-have-relatively-large-percentage-visitors-from-france

Answer 20

I'll try to do a few this week :)