1939.....amazing what you cannot find

[Treetotal]

I wouldn't have the transcriber's job...it must have been very difficult to read and translate the written word...I think we should be thankful that we have such a valuable resource available 
It has answered many questions for me.
Carol

[mike175]

I have done a small amount of (unpaid) transcribing for FamilySearch and a lot more for my own use. By comparison to some of the old PRs the 1939 Register is child's play. All the records I've seen so far have been easily readable. And as it's a commercial operation I assume the transcribers are paid 

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong 

Mike.

[carol8353]

I wouldn't have the transcriber's job...it must have been very difficult to read and translate the written word...I think we should be thankful that we have such a valuable resource available 
It has answered many questions for me.
Carol

We only know what the words say as they are our ancestors!

I came across my sister in laws grandparents yesterday,only by using grannie's DOB,the surname should have been Mutlow,but was clearly written as Mutton. DOH.

Nothing I could do to correct it as it was transcribed exacly as written.

[Deirdre784]

I have done a small amount of (unpaid) transcribing for FamilySearch and a lot more for my own use. By comparison to some of the old PRs the 1939 Register is child's play. All the records I've seen so far have been easily readable. And as it's a commercial operation I assume the transcribers are paid 

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong 

Mike.

While a lot of the handwriting is good, I've found a lot that is quite appalling, and can understand why the transcribers had such a job.

My husband's great grandparents have both the street name and their surname wrongly transcribed - I had to trawl through the area to find them - and can understand how what was written has been transcribed as it is.

[clairec666]

I have done a small amount of (unpaid) transcribing for FamilySearch and a lot more for my own use. By comparison to some of the old PRs the 1939 Register is child's play. All the records I've seen so far have been easily readable. And as it's a commercial operation I assume the transcribers are paid 

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong 

Mike.

I've seen some horrendous handwriting in the 1939 register, yet some beautiful neat registers from the late 1700s. And in every census from 1841 to 1911 there's been a wide range of readability. I've been a bit frustrated with some of the transcriptions from 1939 to be honest but I think FindMyPast have got the message loud and clear by now!

[panic]

Those Rectors from 1700 probably had good education where copper plate handwriting was well practised. Where as there is no guarantee the numerators had similar instruction.

[Guy Etchells]

I have done a small amount of (unpaid) transcribing for FamilySearch and a lot more for my own use. By comparison to some of the old PRs the 1939 Register is child's play. All the records I've seen so far have been easily readable. And as it's a commercial operation I assume the transcribers are paid 

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong 

Mike.

In some cases yes you are correct the handwriting is good but think for a minute how the transcription was done.
The transcribers did not have access to the original books they were transcribing from an image.
We don't know what size or resolution was available to them but we do know they only had one column revealed at a time.
This means that they had few references to enable them to check whether that was how a J or T etc. was formed by that particular clerk.
We also do not know how much of the column was revealed to them, we can see from the current redacing the often the full image is not open to view. Did the transcribers have a similar problem with the first letter(s) being obscured or the last letter(s) in a column obscured?

Were the transcribers able to enlarge the image they viewed or was it fixed?
Were they time limited to enable the columns to be complied in the page at a certain time?

It is very easy to criticise but we do not know what problems they were faced with.

However no matter what the transcripts say we researchers now have access to the original images and can, as a last resort, browse through page by page until we find who we are looking for.
Yes it takes time but that is how we did it for years before the internet was invented.

Welcome to the real world.

Cheers
Guy

[GrahamSimons]

I've found that with a bit of extra information you can often find a record that's not transcribed very well. Occasionally a wife or husband is a better target than their spouse; sometimes abandoning surname search and going for first name and part of the birth date works; I've even found someone by date of birth alone. Worth trying a range of years for a birth, as I've found several that appear to be one or two years out based on other information I have; same for day of birth, though month seems to be have been reported accurately most of the time.
Double-barrelled names have given some more "interesting" puzzles - sometimes the first barrel works best as a first name, sometimes inverting the double-barrel seems to work.

[coombs]

I even search by borough and DOB and no surname or forename if I cannot find someone, as some records may be grossly mistranscribed.