CWGC search problem - Indexed Service No.

[davidbohl]

You would expect this search would bring up the correct man having filled in surname, name, service no. and regiment CWGC

His service number 203014 has been deviously indexed alphanumerically 2030l4

I was almost on verge of the non-comm process, so a gentle bit of advice - If nothing  comes back from your search, stare at the digits

Dave

[Keith_history_buff]

I have come across a fair few instances where the CWGC source document does contain the correct characters for the service number, yet when the digitisation took place, a fault occurred with the optical character recognition getting an incorrect character, and no cross-checking taking place, clearly.

[Acknown]

2 hours ago, davidbohl said:

stare at the digits

This may change my life.

Acknown

[Allan1892]

23 hours ago, davidbohl said:

If nothing  comes back from your search, stare at the digits

 

21 hours ago, Acknown said:

This may change my life.

A second look for three of my relatives will now be taken and as davidbohl says, I will 'stare at the digits'!

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

On 12/05/2022 at 16:42, Keith_history_buff said:

and no cross-checking taking place, clearly.

I wouldn't say that.
I have vast experience at transcribing AVLs using OCR, and can safely say that fatigue, eye fatigue and brain fatigue can cause errors to be missed time and time again.
If an entry 'looks' right, it will slip through despite being checked by eyeball many times.

The longer you stare at the digits, the more hidden the errors become, and only fresh eyes and brains can spot them
I'm still spotting mistakes in lists I created 3 or 4 years ago.

[davidbohl]

 

On 12/05/2022 at 14:35, davidbohl said:

His service number 203014 has been deviously indexed alphanumerically 2030l4

Got this fixed, just 3 months to get it done, but don't be afraid to report indexing errors.

"This appears to have been a scanning error, which has now been corrected in our database. The amendment will appear on our website in due course, and search by service number should work for this casualty once it does".