Occasionally, the clerk or person who created a record made mistakes. While you are indexing, you may find errors like these:
- On a death certificate, the clerk might have listed the death date as February 30, but February does not have 30 days.
- A place-name might be obviously misspelled.
- The sex does not seem to match the given name and relationship.
The general rule is to type what is on the image, even when the information seems to be incorrect, but rules vary from project to project. Check the Field Help to see what guidelines, if any, are given for making corrections. Often, misspelled place-names can be fixed.
For projects that give both a given name and relationship, and when the sex listed does not match the other 2 indications, list the correct sex based on the other information. For example, if the given name is Rebecca, and the relationship is Wife, but the sex is M (for Male), type an F (for Female) in the Sex field. Note: M or F will vary, depending on the language in which you are indexing. For example, in Spanish the sex code is typically H (hombre, for man) or M (mujer, for woman).
Remember, indexed information is meant to link the digital image of a document to the record. An individual can then see the information on the original document and determine what corrections to make for the information listed.
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