Talk:Scotland Census, 1901 - FamilySearch Historical Records

It appears that the Index for this collection is restricted to Latter Day Saints only. When non-LDS (such as myself) search the index, we get zero results even for very common names.

It there is no objection by the end of the weekend (Sunday 22 December 2019) Utah time, I will mention that the index is LDS-only in this article. --Av85647 (talk) 17:10, 17 December 2019 (MST)

There being no objection, the edit was made. --Av85647 (talk) 13:03, 23 December 2019 (MST)

As has been explained to you before, statements regarding access to FamilySearch Historical Records collections are regulated by our legal department. Accordingly, I have reverted your change to the article. SvareJM (talk) 09:47, 3 January 2020 (MST)

Please can you get the legal department to make this edit quickly? And also, a FS Staff member to respond to the discussion at on Get Satisfaction to clarify what is going on. The fact that it appears that non-LDS cannot use the index is quite important to mention. They will be confused when they keep getting zero search results, even for common names. And please in the future make your objections known before I make the edit. I gave six days notice, which I thought would be more than enough for any concerned editors to discuss my proposed edit. --Av85647 (talk) 14:20, 3 January 2020 (MST)

If you will look at the Scotland Census, 1901 page you will see that we have implemented a notice which was approved today. The timing of this is entirely coincidental, as I've been working on getting it approved for almost two years. I agree with you the prior notices about records access in the wiki have not been as accurate or as helpful to users as they can be. When dealing with an inventory of over four million films and folders of images, staying on top of what the correct usage rights are is physically impossible for the small staff we have working on these articles.

A couple of other points I'd like to make while I have your attention. First, I can't comment on your search experience as I don't know what data you were using in your search. It may be the exact terms you entered didn't return any matches. That may be caused by the format of the data in the database, how you structured your search, the limitations of your access on FamilySearch, or some other factor(s). However, this data is not proprietary. You could subscribe to Findmypast or Scotland's People to access the data. Granted, you would need to purchase a subscription to those sites to access it, but that is an option open to you. Second, I didn't comment on your proposed change as I wasn't aware of it. I do watch the page, but not the talk page. I will ask the engineers who maintain the wiki to investigate this, as I thought changes to talk pages on watched articles did generate notices. Third, this wiki is operated and maintained by FamilySearch to specifically benefit the users of the Historical Records collections and provide genealogical information to the general public. Unlike Wikipedia, we don't ask for contributions to keep the site running. Expectations that it should operate like Wikipedia are unrealistic. Likewise, making demands for action to be taken within a specified window of time, while well-intentioned, are likewise unrealistic. Lastly, I will ask someone who is assigned to monitor the Get Satisfaction page to look at the link you have provided. SvareJM (talk) 21:35, 6 January 2020 (MST)

Thank you for this detailed response. Your colleague Joe Martel has already responded to the GetSatisfaction thread, and has confirmed that the index is indeed restricted to Latter Day Saints only. --Av85647 (talk) 22:33, 6 January 2020 (MST)