Incorrect Census transcriptions on Ancestry

[aussiegalx]

This is a very interesting thread.  I have a few, some because the image is difficult to read

Like in 1841 in St Austell Cornwall, James SNELL, is James SMITH, Phillipa SNELL and some of the children are MELL.  But at the Cornwall Online Census, Phillipa SNELL is called Phillipa BELL.  Or in the 1861 Census, Holman for Allmon.

But perhaps the best one I have come across at Ancestry.. you would NOT want to live here!

BUTTOMPTON for Cullompton Devon   

That is just so funny it is laughable.

Jenny from Oz

[ibi]

I am certainly no apologist for Ancestry - yes is is sloppy, and we pay for that - but there are some amazing howlers on the free LDS 1881 Census, too - which, of course, are perpetrated on Ancestry as they have not, so far as I am aware, done their own index.

On the '81 there is a Samuel P Mard and his wife Selina - I was at a total loss to find them in the '91 and '01 until I saw the image of the '81 on Ancestry and realised that "P Mard" was a mistranscription of "Pittard".

Also, one poor chap on the '81 was described as an Expiree - I wonder if that means he was dead at the time of the Census...? 

The classic Scottish 1881 misindexing, long since corrected, was all Sutherland locations indexed as Sunderland, Co. Durham!

I've since come across several Leith, Midlothian entries indexed as Middlesex!, so wha kens what interesting mis-indexed entries are still "lurking" 

ibi

[Gadget]

On the national theme, I've come across many Derbyshire for Denbighshire - and so many of the Welsh Llanxxxxx as just gobbledeegook

Gadget

[Ecneps]

It's not just mis-indexing, if that's the word - some kind person has just found a family for me, birthplace in 1861 on census page as Midilsex, Bradford, very clear writing, and it should actually have been Cranford, Middlesex (from later census) - so enumerator's fault that time 

Barbara

[Paul Caswell]

And then there's my third gt granfather Richard Speight living in Northfleet Kent in 1851 aged 74 with the fascinating birth place Kendle Blund, Westmorland.

A careful look at the census page makes this almost believable until you notice that the 'blund' is written in the infirmities column. He was blind. 

Paul

[mitch7532]

Just to add to this, I`m doing a lot of research on the surname PARFREMENT and currently have 58 different mistranscriptions of this one name on ancestry.com so if your looking for your missing Parfrement, feel free to contact me,
Neil

[Beth86]

I have come across some great ones. 

My favourite though is Roly or Rollay instead of Foley. 

On GR I hit a brick wall almost immediately because of mistranscription.  My ggrandfather was Edward Hodges living in Fleur-de-Lys Monmouthshire in 1901.  My father remembered him as not a very old man so I was boggled to find him appearing at the bottom of the list of people in his house, aged 31 with no occupation, and no disability to prevent him from having an occupation.

Then, on looking at the actual census page, I discovered the 1 was just an overscore(?) and he was actually 3 years old.  Which tied into my family.  Mystery solved!

[Ecneps]

I have just been searching the 1841 census for a male with first name Lane -- and there were hundreds with that forename - page after page, when I checked some, they were all actually Jane.

So anyone out there looking for missing Janes .. think L
and no, I haven't amended them, there were too many to check.

Barbara 

[Ecneps]

Further to my last post,  I did actually correct a Lane Yackee as it was clearly Jane Harker 

One other I saw was a Lane Taermud, (Jane Turner?)
when I clicked on the name, the index for that page shows a list of 86 names, many of them very non-British sounding (some of them are patients at a private lunatic asylum in Helmsley, Yorkshire).  The writing on the image page is not that clear, but not that bad either.

Barbara