FamilySearch.org Record Conundrum

computer screenshot taken with camera phone 4/4/2020 at 9:22am
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X2K4-34Z  


computer screenshot taken with camera phone 4/4/2020 at 9:37am
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X2K4-34Z  

Above are two computer screenshots taken with my camera phone on April 4. The first one was taken at 9:22am, the second was taken at 9:37am after conducting the search with that name again. According to the link in the search box at the top, they are both the same link, yet the information within that record is different. Subsequently, every time I bring up that link, whether by pasting that specific URL in the search box or when I do a search on the website for "Stanley Janicki" and get that record hit, the link only comes up the same as the second one. I am extremely puzzled by this.

To make matters more complicated, there is another entry from this same database that appears to be for the same man but with completely different information and a completely different record link altogether. (When you do a search, both entries will come up):

computer screenshot taken with camera phone 4/4/2020 at 9:36am
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XGH7-VTR 


I have also posted this conundrum at Elizabeth Shown Mills' website, Evidence Explained for further discussion but was unable to upload the screenshots for viewing there.

If I had not taken a computer screenshot of the record initially, I would have never been able to show this. After compiling the information I had gathered in a word processing document, I at first thought I had conflated and confused other records I had found in trying to prove the identity of this man until I went back and looked at the screenshots.

Comments

  1. Although for absolute safety in preservation in doesn't hurt to snap a photo of your screen, these are not actually "computer screenshots"; to "take a screenshot" you use the "Print Screen" key (usually located to the upper right of the keyboard, and perhaps labeled with some of the vowels missing) which puts an image onto the clipboard for you to paste into whatever graphics program you use (even if it's merely msPaint!), or alternatively, your operating system may have some sort of screen-grabber pre-installed or you can google free ones.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, John Danielson. I suppose for complete accuracy I could re-word this to indicate that I snapped a photo of my computer screen with my camera phone rather than took a screenshot. I took the photo with the intent to share the find with another person (who was otherwise unfamiliar with record searching) via sending the photo by text. It was not my original intent to preserve the record as I assumed that it could be retrieved again in the same way using the search capabilities at the website.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

COG: The Love of Reading

Bannerman Family Mystery

Friday Faces from the Past: Moorefield