Correction of errors on Fold3 - good news!

Member of The Western Front Association will be pleased to learn that the 'correction of errors process' which is detailed via this link >>> CORRECTION OF ERRORS is working very well, with WFA member Judith Beastall working through the submissions.

The process has been refined and these will now be able to be corrected within a few days of the submission and take effect as soon as the suggested error has been reviewed by Judith. (The original concept was that these would be sent to Ancestry for updating every couple of months or so; this would have caused a significant time-lag to the process).

Although the mis-tagged (or mis-indexed) errors are not being removed as part of this process, the new ('correct') name (or regimental number or other detail) will, as soon as it is loaded by Judith into the Fold3 site, become immediately available when a search is undertaken. This will ensure the record with the 'corrected' details will be immediately accessible using the Fold3 search engine. 

'Hints and Tips'

It is also useful via this update to share with WFA members 'hints and tips'. The 'hint' detailed below is probably the most important one that we need to impart at the moment and will hopefully increase the 'success rate' when undertaking a search.

On many of the cards, the Ministry of Pensions clerks inserted commas in regimental numbers, so we have (for example) on the card below a handwritten regimental number of 110,983 for Gunner Douglas Cameron of the RGA. 

This was originally tagged (or indexed) as 110,953. As a result a search under 110953 (without the comma) would not have brought the card up (although of course a search under his name would have resulted in a 'hit').

This has now been corrected using the WFA 'correction of error' process but we would like to ensure WFA members are aware of the use of commas within regimental numbers by The Ministry of Pensions and suggest that if a search does not result in a hit using the regimental number without a comma, that this is repeated with a comma. Doing this may result in a record being located.