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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: demented on Thursday 21 February 13 15:32 GMT (UK)
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Was browsing through newspapers on FindMyPast and was amazed at some of the errors made in the extacts. Some of course are understandable given the poor quality of writing etc transcribers have to work with.
However I wonder sometimes if they actually read what they have transcribed!!
Loved this one
Arrested for " breaking into a horse in Bell St" and stealing articles of clothing
What a picture that conjures up ;D
Margaret
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I think most of the newspaper transcripts are computer generated using character recognition software; it would be an almost impossible, and impossibly expensive, task to manually transcribe the millions of pages.
It is essential to read the original scans to get the details right.
But there are some very entertaining errors ;D
Mike.
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Thanks Mike
Afraid I'm a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to technology. Things just move on so fast nowadays I can't keep up!
Margaret
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And even the transcriptions (of censuses etc) that are done by an actual person are done by people with little or no knowledge of the area or sometimes even the language concerned
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And even the transcriptions (of censuses etc) that are done by an actual person are done by people with little or no knowledge of the area or sometimes even the language concerned
One that I found this month was a "saw stationer" rather than a "law stationer" - an understandable misread of the writing style. I did wonder what the premises would have looked like that mixed legal forms and tools.......
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This isn't really a mistranscription but still makes me laugh every time I see this selection when I'm searching the newspapers.
"Frederic Stoneham, Esq., Hawbery Farm, Erith, on Sunday last gave birth to not fewer than eleven puppies, nine black ones and two brown ones"
I would love to have seen that ;D ;D ;D
Rishile
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And apparently in the 19th century, The Times printed "Lady Kennedy has given birth to twins, the elder being a son". That was later corrected a cable sent from Australia saying "Governor of Queensland, twins first son", should have read "Governor of Queensland turns first sod" (of the Gympie railway) and Sir Arthur Kennedy the Governor was in fact a bachelor. ::)
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I saw a census entry the other day - Occupation - Teacher of Mince. If it had been a family member I would have got the original from Scotlandspeople, but I may have to anyway, as it's been annoying me ever since! Anne
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Should probably be "Teacher of Music"
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Yes Marmalady, you're right! I also found Teacher of....Marie, Misie, Misick, Murick, Messic!
Just serves to remind us to think laterally when searching, I found one of my Morisons under Mimson!
Scotlandspeople gave me back my credits. :)
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One of the problems with transcription is that if you make a 'reasonable' assumption about an illegible handwritten entry you are as likely to be wrong as right. As I understand it the golden rule is to transcribe what you see even if it makes no sense to you and if it is illegible, say so.
I've accidentally found several ancestors mis-transcribed and indexed under the wrong name and often, seeing the original, I would not have recognised the name myself if I hadn't known it from other clues.
Mike.
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I found a mistranscription on ScotlandsPeople so sent them an email to tell them. I got a lovely email back from a real person, and had credits refunded (which I hadn't asked for).
If Ancestry gave me a refund every time I corrected their census transcriptions they'd owe me a fortune!
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Arrested for " breaking into a horse in Bell St" and stealing articles of clothing
I first thought when I read this - was it a Trojan horse? ;D
I can imagine how hard it must be to transcribe victorian (and earlier) handwriting. I have a copy of an ancestors marriage certificate and at first glance it looks like STUBBS but when you look at it closely you can see it actually says STABLES
As Anneatki says you have to think laterally in a lot of cases.
Jean
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Years ago I was asked where Shellhouse was in Aghadowey- detail from marriage certificate. When I was sent a copy of the certificate I was still puzzled as I thought it looked like Shelhouse. Finally figured out that it was TheManse!
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I found this one recently- Elizabeth Shipbone transcribed as Nazareth Shinbone.
radstockjeff
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Last night I found one (I think 1851 census for Esh, Co Durham) who was born 'Western Sahara, Durham' ::)
Looking at the original it said 'Durham' followed by THREE letters which look as if they say Esh - but it definitely is NOT the Western Sahara ;D