crazy mistranscriptions

[Anneatki]

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. 

[mike175]

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.

[JMStrachan]

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!

[Jean McGurn]

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? 

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

[aghadowey]

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!

[radstockjeff]

I found this one recently-  Elizabeth Shipbone transcribed as Nazareth Shinbone.

radstockjeff

[roopat]

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