1939 - At last! TNA explain why references removed

[locksmith]

One reason why Ancestry searches can give better results than F M P is because Ancestry accept ALL corrections from contributors, and add them to the index.  F M P, on the the other hand, stick slavishly to the "transcribe exactly what you see" mantra, which means that mistakes in the original just get copied and perpetuated.

Ancestry accept alternatives, some of which may well be corrections and these are used in their searches. They do not correct transcription errors. FindMyPast stick "slavishly" to exact transcriptions as this is exactly what transcriptions are and has nothing to do with knowledge or what anyone thinks it should be. Many of the alternatives given by people on ancestry are are very good reason that it shouldn't be left to someone with 'knowledge".

Simon

[DmTomo]

Ancestry were the slowest website to complete amendments because of transcription errors, until Findmypast updated their website 18 months ago.  In 2005 I told Ancestry of an error and gave up reminding them in 2010. (It did only involve a couple of thousand census images which were not connected properly). I cannot recall any of the transcription errors I reported to them being corrected.  They just put them in as "alternatives".  I don't believe Ancestry actually check any of the errors, they just accept anything as being an "alternative"

Since April 2014 I have told Findmypast of several thousand errors, many of them being their system faults.  None have been corrected.

Sorry this is wandering of topic!

[StevieSteve]

I cannot recall any of the transcription errors I reported to them being corrected.  They just put them in as "alternatives".  I don't believe Ancestry actually check any of the errors, they just accept anything as being an "alternative"

As long as the corrections are picked up in searches, that's all that' matters, surely?

I tend to add my corrections on Ancestry as "Variations" as you can usually see why things have been transcribed as they have. Got a couple of (presumably automated) thank you emails from Ancestry too!

[Sloe Gin]

I cannot recall any of the transcription errors I reported to them being corrected.  They just put them in as "alternatives".  I don't believe Ancestry actually check any of the errors, they just accept anything as being an "alternative"

As long as the corrections are picked up in searches, that's all that' matters, surely?

I tend to add my corrections on Ancestry as "Variations" as you can usually see why things have been transcribed as they have. Got a couple of (presumably automated) thank you emails from Ancestry too!

That's exactly the point.  What good does it do anyone to stick to a misleading transcription?  I've added lots of "alternatives" to Ancestry.  One of my families has been entered on a census with the wrong surname - the whole lot of them - and I can only guess why it happened.   I know it's them because all the names and ages match, and the address exactly matches the address on the b/c of one of the children born just before that census.  It took me a long, long time to track them down, so I have offered the true surname as a alternative for the index.  Now anyone else searching for them will be pointed to that family in the search results, and they can decide for themselves whether it's them or not.  The wrong name (which happens to be the wife's maiden name) still appears in the index, so nothing has been lost.

  I don't believe Ancestry actually check any of the errors, they just accept anything as being an "alternative"

And that's fine.  It just gives people somewhere else to look, that may have been otherwise missed.

[Mean_genie]

If you think there is a mistake in the transcription/indexing of a record in  The National Archives catalogue, or in Digital Downloads you can submit a correction. But it will only be accepted if the transcription is wrong; if it is an accurate transcription of an original record which is wrong in itself, it won't be changed. This was also the practice adopted in the original 1901 census project, which came out at about the same time as DocumentsOnline, the precursor of Digital Downloads. FindMyPast have adopted the same model, while Ancestry will accept all 'alternate' information, regardless of its merits. There are advantages and disadvantages in both approaches.

For what it's worth, I have submitted a number of corrections to the 1939 Register and several of them were updated on the site within a few days.

[LizzieL]

I prefer the approach Ancestry takes with listing alternatives (if substantiated of course).
I found a marriage record on FindMyPast a few weeks ago and needed to search for it again this morning (could not find where I downloaded it to). I remember that I had had difficulty finding it the first time, and went through all the common misspellings of the groom's name. The problem was that the clerk filling out the record had misspelt the groom's name, when writing out the marriage record. But the groom had clearly signed his name with the correct spelling. (this was original PR not BT). The transcriber had transcribed what they saw from the heading of the record, without checking against the parties signatures. On Ancestry another record (again a marriage record) that I was looking for has bride surname indexed as Heltham with a note that she signed Eltham, unfortunately this is only a transcript, so I cannot check the original, but I expect the clerk wrote Heltham on the top as this was how many of the family liked to pronounce the name!

[Sloe Gin]

That's right, Lizzie, there can be all kinds of back stories behind the reasons things were wrongly entered. 

The bottom line is that the index is not a historic document that needs to be protected from corruption,  just a finding aid to help us find our way to the original source.  Any alternatives submitted may be helpful, and they are certainly harmless as they do not affect the original in any way.

[Parmesan]

Agree Sloe Gin.

This is *well* worth a read

http://www.oneplacestudy.org/blog/?p=793

[DmTomo]

My problem with Ancestry's system is that they rarely acknowledge that they have made an error and CHANGE their transcription.