Quick tip: There is no village called ‘Burgerlijke Stand’

In some of the records at Familysearch, the place of birth is listed as 'Burgerlijke Stand' followed by the name of a municipality in the Netherlands. 'Burgerlijke Stand' means 'Civil Registration' and is not a location. The way it is included in the record sets on Familysearch makes it look like a village. When these records were imported by Ancestry.com, these errors were copied too. This particular mistake has now been fixed on Ancestry.com, but can still be found on Familysearch. Read … [Read more...]

How Software Errors Corrupt Our Trees

Infographic The article I wrote about major problems with new Dutch records on Ancestry.com sparked some great discussions both here and on several Facebook groups. People were especially appalled by the error that caused 'Burgerlijke Stand' (Civil Registration) to be included in the place name. But this isn't the biggest error caused by software. I found almost 1 million records for people who lived in Reusel-De Mierden, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands in Ancestry Member Trees, many going back … [Read more...]

Major problems with new Dutch records on Ancestry.com

Through its partnership with Familysearch.org, Ancestry.com added millions of records from the Netherlands to their website this week. Just search the Card Catalog for databases with 'Netherlands' in the title. The new record sets include: Netherlands, Select Births and Baptisms, 1564-1910 (in Dutch) [6.2 million records] Netherlands, Select Marriages, 1565-1892 (in Dutch) [1.4 million records] Netherlands, Select Deaths and Burials, 1668-1945 (in Dutch) [0.6 million records] Great … [Read more...]