Errors on Findmypast

Good morning,

I had an email the other day about my x4 great grandmother Mary Stevens (1810 - 1886) the message was actually referring to Mary’s sister Deborah. Mary was born in Bledlow to John and Elizabeth and appears to have been a late baptism she was 15 when baptised. The information about her birth and baptism came from Bucks FHS which I believe is correct. However, on Findmypast it gives the same baptism date but says 12 March 1825 instead of 1810 on its record, all the other information is correct. Mary’s mother would have been too old to be having children in 1825 she was born in 1771 making her 54. Has anyone else found errors on FMP and if so is there a way of reporting them?


Sent from my iPhone using Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine Forum mobile app

If you mean the entry in the "Buckinghamshire Baptism Index", which has both birth and baptism in 1825, you can't report an error since it's a text index only - in other words, you have no evidence what's on the original. You are probably right, of course, but FMP rightly require that evidence. Because that entry is actually taken from the Bishops' Transcripts, you'd need that image, not the image of the Parish Register - after all, it's not impossible that the BT is wrong - if it is wrong, then FMP will insist on indexing the image as it is, not how it ought to be.

Sent from my Moto G6 Play using Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine Forum mobile app

There is an Australian (?) website which contains PR transcriptions for several Buckinghamshire villages, including Bledlow. http://lanchbury.id.au/genealogy/bledlow1800.html

It includes the 1825 baptism below, which may rule out your Mary:
Born 12 Mar bapt 26 June Mary dau of John & Elizabeth Stevens Bledlow Farmer

Two baptized on the same day though. 26 June 1825
Other one is John, son of John + Elizabeth Stevens
Find my past says John born 12 March(!) 1825
Launchbury website Mo found says John born 13 Sep 1813
Apparently no baptisms to John and Elizabeth Stevens at Bledlow between 1809 and 1814.
On a side note, on the lanchbury site, baptisms to John and Elizabeth Stevens of Hepzibah in 1815 and Isabella in 1821 have the father as a shoemaker, the 1826 baptisms have the father John as a farmer.
John Stevens, Elizabeth, Isabella, and Hepzibah Bailey (she seems to have married in 1834) are living together in Bledlow in 1841 (John is a Shoemaker)

BT's for Bledlow have been filmed by the LDS, but the PR's not listed
https://www.familysearch.org/search/cat ... %20Library

They are indexed on FamilySearch, but no date of birth given for Mary on there
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NJDP-ZDQ

Images of the BTs can only be accessed at an LDS Family History Centre or an associate library such as the Society of Genealogists, according to the FS site. Normally when you see that, the stuff is available through a pay site so, for the term of the contract, access is restricted elsewhere. I don't know if anyone else has the Bedfordshire images - maybe someone's planning to?

Sent from my Moto G6 Play using Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine Forum mobile app

The default position with FamilySearch is that any records which come from an Archive, such as a Records Office will only be available on a restricted basis, at either a FamilySearch Centre or FamilySeach Affiliate Library. There are some exceptions, where the Archive has specifically given permission for the records to be available online without restriction.

I don't think the restriction implies that the records are available, or will be available, through a pay website, although that may be the situation in some cases.

Cheers
Maureen