The worst Ancestry transcription ever?

[JAKnighton]

A recurring problem in my research is that transcribers clearly have no knowledge of Huntingdonshire as a county. Very often "Hunts" in a place of birth will be transcribed as "Hants" or in some cases "Herts".

In fact this is such a widespread problem that on FamilySearch the "Huntingdonshire Parish Registers" record set, which is clearly dedicated to that county only, has some of the place names indexed under Hampshire.

[melba_schmelba]

I've just had a quick browse of those Banns.

People seemed to be in a great rush to marry, and the clergymen seemed to be in a rush to get them to the altar. I notice one marriage at 2:15 on March 30th and the next listed at 2:30 the same day.

Was it the influence of wartime, or were they all worried about being transported back to the reign of George II ?   

Interesting couple of things about this:

a 1944 American government pamphlet, I assume intended for officers rather than the ranks:

EM 30: Can War Marriages Be Made to Work? G.I. Roundtable Series
https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/gi-roundtable-series/pamphlets/em-30-can-war-marriages-be-made-to-work-(1944)

Some interesting points i.e. sometimes the motive may be financial (on both sides) i.e. a married woman will receive income and a pension if her husband dies, much more than would be given to an unmarried dependent and children by her. Sometimes it may be due to warning other men off, 'securing' a relationship, sometimes fraud was involved and there were cases where a woman took two soldiers income at once .

And the later inevitable cost of the rush
https://qz.com/1314011/the-unromantic-untold-story-of-the-great-us-divorce-spree-of-1946

And a National Archives page on a marriage between a corporal racing back from the front to marry his pregnant fiancé , and having to obtain a Faculty Office special licence, which was very expensive £29 5s 6d at the time, although he only paid £5 and the rest paid by the War Office (£5 stamp duty waived)

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/first-world-war/home-front-stories/love-and-war/

[coombs]

Also I have seen the odd occasion where Hertfordshire and Herefordshire has been mixed up.

[Crumblie]

I did some transcribing for Ancestry a couple of years ago and you were told to put what you saw and not what you thought it should be. If you did the latter you had to confirm that was you wanted to put and it would then have to be checked by another transcriber.

[HughC]

Yes, but that's no excuse for some of the idiocies that some transcribers put.
If an image of the original is available, I often see something much more plausible.

[coombs]

Yes, but that's no excuse for some of the idiocies that some transcribers put.
If an image of the original is available, I often see something much more plausible.

And me, also if you have local knowledge of the area or have ancestors from there and have clued yourself up on the local villages/towns.

[MollyC]

I remember the original transcription of the 1881 census.  We were asked to put an asterisk and make a note on the back of the sheet if there were doubtful entries.  Most people were transcribing districts in their local FHS area.  In a census district about 12 miles away from these names, I found two adjacent places of birth: Carcroft and Skyler.  I was familiar with two adjacent villages: Carcroft and Skellow.  Dialect!

[Tin man]

Yes, but that's no excuse for some of the idiocies that some transcribers put.
If an image of the original is available, I often see something much more plausible.

Surely, transcribing a written record is open to interpretation. What about levels of experience / eyesight?

[mudmonster]

on a fur couch (Furlough) How about that one!!
and some surnames  completely wrong