Record counts for a place don't add up to reported total

[richardofsussex]

[reported by Andrew Turvey]

Taking https://www.freereg.org.uk/freereg_contents/53cd4999eca9ebee4f00b8dd/show_place?locale=en as an example, the individual record counts add up to 452, while the reported total is 522:

[Sandra-AW]

I believe the missing numbers are due to data lines in the baptism files which only have a birthdate and no baptism date.

I am sending this to needs review in the hope that my theory can be corroborated.

[DeniseColbert]

@jayto581 will take a look to see if it's something he can work on. Is the reason for the discrepancy due to Sandra's suggestion?

[jayto581]

Yes, the discrepancy is caused by missing or "unreadable" data.

There appears to more than one pathway to calculate the distribution and total record count.
According to the present code of one of the pathways and very limited testing, if the year information is missing or "unreadable" in all the fields in a particular record type, the record will not be counted in the distribution table. However, the record will be counted in the total records count

Fields in highest to lowest precedence order

• Baptism record
  • Baptism date field
  • Birth date field
  • Confirmation date field
  • Received into church date field
• Burial record
  • Burial date field
  • Death Date field
• Marriage record
  • Marriage date field
  • Contract date field

For Example

Marriage date	Contract date	Year	Included in distribution count	Included in total records count
1740	Missing/Unreadable	1740	Yes	Yes
Unreadable/Missing	20 May 1738	1738	Yes	Yes
Unreadable/Missing	Missing/Unreadable	Unknown	No	Yes
20 May 1740	May 1738	1740	yes, Marriage year	Yes

[DeniseColbert]

Decided to document this rather than fix.

Add a line of text below the decadal table "Please note: due to different methods of record counting there may be discrepancies in the record totals on this page"