Incorrect Census transcriptions on Ancestry

[imison]

Easy - choose your place, probably on the Forum for "Census Lookups" or "Census and Resource Discussion" would be best, start the thread with a proper introduction and then ask the moderator to sticky it to the top but allow people to add to it.

Forum for "Census Lookups" /Census and Resource Discussion


Mary

Dear Mary - what a genius of an idea you have created!

Could you please pass this on to the moderator as it is your fantastic idea.

Many thanks again

Imison

[imison]

I think that's a good thought. Where could we store them for reference?

Dear loo

Thank you for your support of the idea.  It looks like Mary has a solution.  What does everyone else think?

Best wishes

Imsion

[imison]

 

I wonder if we, on rootschat, could compile a list of possible alternative names to look for so that we might then look for relatives under the WRONG addresses?

I have put this to another forum and had some favourable response from a couple of people, one of whom suggested contacting the moderator to set up such a forum.

Do you have any suggestions as to whether this would be useful?

best wishes

Imison

[MaryA]

Well I don't have any to start off with, I think maybe avj or Carole should start the thread in the correct place with the details of the mistranscriptions they have found.  Then just dropping the moderator a pm should do the trick.

Mary

[imison]

Dear Mary

I have written a quick posting on the General site and mentioned this forum and said that a couple of people had replied positively to the suggestion of getting a list of alternative names and addresses for census transcriptions which may be wrongly indexed.

Thank you very much for your suggestion - you know what to ask for, and I am very much an ingenue.

I would be most grateful if you could pass on my request to the correct person/people for analysis.

Best wishes

Imison

[Sisterjane]

Hi Imison
It is my experience and i know some other Rootchatters would agree that when doing a look up for a poster and the person they are looking for  cannot be found by the name supplied , then most often its pretty pointless looking for something that rhymes with the name or even a phonetic name because its due mainly to hard to read original images or transcriber error,take your name Imison , the I could easily be mistaken for l then you get lmison now that would be a challenge
Sorry to rabbit on

Joe

[imison]

Hello Joe

Yes, I do see what you mean.

I had better explain myself better - it was a forum about censuses and the enumerators' handwriting and the way people who transcribe the names and addresses therein have from time to time put the wrong name either for the PLACE [address] or for the person's NAME [either surname or their given name].

I hope this explains what we were trying to do - really to set up a searchable index of POTENTIAL alternative names and places [addresses] where the indexes of the censuses may themselves be mis-transcribed.  Thus, if someone finds that there is a problem with, say, IMISON, on a census, and finds JANTON [as indeed I have] then a searchable database could be put here so that when we try using the census databases we might have an educated guess as to where our ancestors might be found hiding!

I am aware that this would be potentially difficult to set up, but it could be extremely useful.

Best wishes

Imison

[Sisterjane]

Sorry Imison
Now that Sarah has merged the two topics I get the gyst of it now LOL and yep I think its a good idea and hope it takes off, If it does Trystan will be closing down to update us with an even bigger server LOL

Joe

[imison]

Dear Joe

No, it is me who is thanking YOU for helping me to clarify the idea. Many thanks.

Best wishes

Imison