Problems with IGI.....

Skene Dhu · Post by **Skene Dhu** » Mon May 22, 2006 12:43 am

Hi All,

Has anyone noticed what I believe to be a bug in the LDS Familysearch site. Today I was searching for children of Murdoch McKenzie & Grace Robertson, I placed the parents as spelt, and up came the following:-

Christina McKenzie : abt 1848, Birnie, Moray (submitted by LDS member)
Alexander McKenzie : 18 Jul 1856, Birnie, Moray (extract)

When I put in the following children:-

Alexander McKenzie : 1856
Helen McKenzie : 1850

Up came the parents for Alexander as Murdoch Mc Kenzie (note space) and Grace Robertson.
and for Helen as Murdoch McKenzie and Grace Robertson
Christina`s came up as Murdo McKenzie and Grace Robertson

The three children were:-

Christina McKenzie : b. 23 Mar 1846, Birnie, Moray
Helen McKenzie : b. 9 Jul 1850, Birnie, Moray
Alexander McKenzie : b. 18 Jul 1856, Birnie, Moray

Is there a problem with the site, or am I missing something.

John

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Mon May 22, 2006 8:34 am

Hi John
I haven't noticed it on the LDS site but I do know the 1881 census disks behave oddly with Mc & Mac names.
best wishes
Lesley

IanS · Post by **IanS** » Mon May 22, 2006 9:10 am

Hi John, I see what you mean. Helen is coming up in an ordinary birth search, but not coming up in a parent search with or without the space between the 'Mc' and 'K'. Also tried Murdo and Murdoch. It appears there's a glitch in the system, unless anyone else can see what we are missing.

DavidWW · Post by **DavidWW** » Mon May 22, 2006 10:17 am

The "problem" here derives from one of the basic LDS transcription rules, which is to transcribe records exactly as they are.

Why that's occasionally a problem for Scots is that it's not unusual for a Mc name to be written with a distinct space between "Mc" and the rest of the name, so that what we know for near certain is "McKay", is actually transcribed as "Mc Kay" as that's the way it's written. And just to make life that little bit more interesting, in the same entry there might be both "McKay" and "Mc Kay" .........

Sometimes the LDS 1881 software picks up both, sometimes it doesn't, so best always to search also for, in my example, "Kay", - I've never bottomed out if the IGI on-line has exactly the same problem, but strongly suspect that it has.

David

angel · Post by **angel** » Mon May 22, 2006 12:41 pm

Hello John

I can look at microfilm up to 1854 for Moray if you want me to do this for I would only be too happy to help you in any way I can.

Heather

Skene Dhu · Post by **Skene Dhu** » Mon May 22, 2006 9:04 pm

Hi David,

I see what you mean, about the spelling :

Alexander comes under Mc Kenzie (space)
Helen comes under McKenzie (no space)
Christina`s father isnt Murdoch, but Murdo

Very complicated!!, its like my Christian name is John, so the family call me Ian, I know its Gaelic for John, but my mother said, it was so that no one got you mixed up with your Dad, who`s John also, but nobody called him John, they all called him Jack

Heather,

You`d be an Angel if you could (sorry about the pun)

John