Forest of Dean FHT Forum - False Negatives - This is probably the reason why

False Negatives - This is probably the reason why (reply)

admin — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 14:37:09 +0000

This is probably the reason why.

Searching Records - No records found
http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=18728

If it is not the reason why, would you please send me the names and details of the people you are having difficulty finding.

Occasional False Negatives from Parish Record Search (reply)

m p griffiths — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 11:01:28 +0000

I do have a problem with searching - sometimes the only way for the name to appear is to use the Advance Search (say for children of) - and also on occasions , I have to call up the whole of the register, for that year with every baptism/marriage etc - for the particular person to appear, even if the surname has been spelt 'correctly' on the register. Other times, the system seems to work correctly.

Occasional False Negatives from Parish Record Search

jmricketts — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 10:45:58 +0000

Occasionally, I get a false negative result when doing an explicit (Soundex-off) search for an individual. I know it's a false negative because if I turn Soundex on, the name I'm looking for then appears in the results list (as originally spelt). I DO check the spelling when this happens, and the problem does reproduce at the time. But then if I repeat the search the next day, the search works correctly. Because the problem seems to go away (only to return another day), I haven't managed to pin it down more specifically to a particular year, type of event, or range of names. All I can say is that I tend to be working with names located in the Westbury-on-Severn registers, although I haven't necessarily been specifying this parish when encountering the false negatives.

Has anybody else encountered similar problems?