Ancestry tree rubbish

[andrewalston]

I've just had a reply back from Ancestry about their insane invented place names.

They say that it's my fault for having been silly enough to put addresses in the "GPS" fields. There is no such field in their record entry screens, but there IS one labelled Address, which is correctly filled in.

They say that I should edit the individual entries to remove my carefully-researched addresses. That particular database has about 300 addresses, by the way.

I'm assuming that what they are doing is converting the field to a GPS co-ordinate location, which they then look up in their rubbish gazetteer for display. Because they can't figure out where Derby is, they find a house numbered 4 somewhere in Alaska, and so that is what they display.

I pointed out that what I have entered is a perfectly normal postal address, which would enable an item posted anywhere in the world to be delivered correctly.

I have again tried to point them in the direction of the bug, telling them that they convert the well-known address “1600, Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, District of Columbia, USA” to “Kimball, Nebraska, USA”.

I bet they blame the US Presidents for living in the wrong place all this time.
 

[pharmaT]

I've just had a reply back from Ancestry about their insane invented place names.

They say that it's my fault for having been silly enough to put addresses in the "GPS" fields. There is no such field in their record entry screens, but there IS one labelled Address, which is correctly filled in.

They say that I should edit the individual entries to remove my carefully-researched addresses. That particular database has about 300 addresses, by the way.

I'm assuming that what they are doing is converting the field to a GPS co-ordinate location, which they then look up in their rubbish gazetteer for display. Because they can't figure out where Derby is, they find a house numbered 4 somewhere in Alaska, and so that is what they display.

I pointed out that what I have entered is a perfectly normal postal address, which would enable an item posted anywhere in the world to be delivered correctly.

I have again tried to point them in the direction of the bug, telling them that they convert the well-known address “1600, Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, District of Columbia, USA” to “Kimball, Nebraska, USA”.

I bet they blame the US Presidents for living in the wrong place all this time.
 

Well given the current president that is perhaps not such a bizarre proposition.


I'm still furious that they told ME to brush up on my geography over my attempts to explain that Birmingham, England is no where near Yorkshire and that there is more than one place in Scotland called Dalry (they've attributed all Dalry records to Edinburgh) whether the person is from Dumfries or Ayrshire

[clairec666]

That's pretty bad customer service if you ask me. Telling you you're wrong (especially when you're clearly not) and blaming you for your mistakes.... pretty rude actually.

[pharmaT]

That's pretty bad customer service if you ask me. Telling you you're wrong (especially when you're clearly not) and blaming you for your mistakes.... pretty rude actually.

I felt that, I was furious in fact, they didn't even acknowledge I may be right when I pointed out I was sitting in Scotland, had visited all places, was present when some of the events in question occurred and were registered and had visited all possible locations at some time in the past.  Then still didn't acknowledge me when I presented evidence in the form o maps, post office post code evidence etc that ptoved it was indexed wrong.

[clairec666]

On that evidence, I won't bother trying to tell them that Yaxley, Suffolk is not the same place as Yaxley, Huntingdonshire. Not too far apart, but definitely two different places - Ancestry thinks otherwise. See also: Steeple, Essex and Steeple Bumpstead, Essex.

[pharmaT]

On that evidence, I won't bother trying to tell them that Yaxley, Suffolk is not the same place as Yaxley, Huntingdonshire. Not too far apart, but definitely two different places - Ancestry thinks otherwise. See also: Steeple, Essex and Steeple Bumpstead, Essex.

No, I wouldn't bother.  They can't grasp that Dalry, Dumfries and Galloway is different from Dalry Edinburgh so I think the concept of 2 places relatively close together with the same name would blow their minds.

[clairec666]

On that evidence, I won't bother trying to tell them that Yaxley, Suffolk is not the same place as Yaxley, Huntingdonshire. Not too far apart, but definitely two different places - Ancestry thinks otherwise. See also: Steeple, Essex and Steeple Bumpstead, Essex.

No, I wouldn't bother.  They can't grasp that Dalry, Dumfries and Galloway is different from Dalry Edinburgh so I think the concept of 2 places relatively close together with the same name would blow their minds.

I'll take your advice then. No point wasting my time trying to put them right!

[Maiden Stone]

I'm still furious that they told ME to brush up on my geography over my attempts to explain that Birmingham, England is no where near Yorkshire and that there is more than one place in Scotland called Dalry (they've attributed all Dalry records to Edinburgh) whether the person is from Dumfries or Ayrshire

I'll back you up. I've been in all those places. Birmingham is a big place to get wrong. You can't miss it on a map.
It reminds me of times I phoned travel information lines. On one occasion I was planning a trip to Edinburgh. My destination was near Haymarket rail station so that's where I wanted to alight the train. After failing to convince the person on the other end of the phone that Haymarket was merely a railway station in Edinburgh and not a separate town in Scotland, I gave up.  Twice I needed to travel by bus between towns or villages in the county in which I live. Customer services people were obviously just reciting what came up first on their screen with no thought because in each case they were sending me on long detours and even to a destination with same name in another county in a different part of the country. 

[a chesters]

I wonder what they would make of Heathcote in Australia.

There is one in Victoria, not far from Bendigo, about 100 Kms north of Melbourne

There is another in N.S.W., just to the south of Engadine, about 30 Kms south of Sydney CBD.

They are about 800 Kms apart, close to an 8 hour trip by car