I'd be interested to hear anyones views on this. I use the Times online at home, via my local library. I searched for any mention of someone who I thought was likely to have a marriage announcement/death in the paper. I'll call him Fred Bloggs. There were no hits. Found out his fathers name yesterday, so just put his name, Jack Bloggs, into the search and the marriage for his son, Fred came up, mentioning his father Jack. So why didn't it come up under a search for Fred??? Any idea how the indexing/search works?
Unconfigured Ad Widget
Collapse
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Accuracy of Times indexing?
Collapse
X
-
Thanks Mary. Just tried putting the brides name in - her full name is in the marriage announcement. No hits, but when I put in her parents name - they have a different surname to hers- it comes up. This is worrying me - how often does this happen?!The National Archives, Kew – Research Service Offered
Contact me via PM on Family Tree Forum or via my personal website - www.militaryandfamilyresearch.co.uk
Comment
-
There's no doubt that it happens quite a bit - but whether it happens on any one search is "it depends". It depends on how clear the printing was on the particular edition, and how good the OCR system is.
There's a NZ or Oz (can't remember which) newspaper site where you get the chance to help the OCR system "learn" from its mistakes.
ChristineResearching: BENNETT (Leics/Birmingham-ish) - incl. Leonard BENNETT in Detroit & Florida ; WARR/WOR, STRATFORD & GARDNER/GARNAR (Oxon); CHRISTMAS, RUSSELL, PAFOOT/PAFFORD (Hants); BIGWOOD, HAYLER/HAILOR (Sussex); LANCASTER (Beds, Berks, Wilts) - plus - COCKS (Spitalfields, Liverpool, Plymouth); RUSE/ROWSE, TREMEER, WADLIN(G)/WADLETON (Devonport, E Cornwall); GOULD (S Devon); CHAPMAN, HALL/HOLE, HORN (N Devon); BARRON, SCANTLEBURY (Mevagissey)...
Comment
-
If you consider the number of times the OCR match gives you an image where the word(s) you requested are NOT included (ie a word/words have been misread) then presumably about the same percentage will not be found when the words ARE in the text. I put the success rate at between 90-95% depending on the quality of the pages etc etc
Comment
-
Thanks Christine. Just checked a couple of the names on the same page, and most come up in the search, but not all. Whilst the Times online is a great resource, I wonder how many searches are unsuccessful like this - not so good!The National Archives, Kew – Research Service Offered
Contact me via PM on Family Tree Forum or via my personal website - www.militaryandfamilyresearch.co.uk
Comment
-
Searching for "Lanning" a lot of hits were actually for "Manning". Knowingthe fallibility of OCR on some text, it's always worth trying to search in different ways.
And the old fashioned index isn't to be despised. A friend found a reference on the cd which did not relate to the paper at all. It turned out that the entry had only appeared in certain editions and wasn't on the Times Digital Archive edition.Phoenix - with charred feathers
Researching Skillings from Norfolk, Sworn from Salisbury and Adams in Malborough, Devon.
Comment
-
That's interesting about the "old" index. Have looked at it before, when the Digital version wasn't available, but of course the "new" version is so much more accessible!The National Archives, Kew – Research Service Offered
Contact me via PM on Family Tree Forum or via my personal website - www.militaryandfamilyresearch.co.uk
Comment
-
Originally posted by Phoenix View Post
And the old fashioned index isn't to be despised. A friend found a reference on the cd which did not relate to the paper at all. It turned out that the entry had only appeared in certain editions and wasn't on the Times Digital Archive edition.
Comment
-
Palmer's Index to the Times. It is just a subject matter index, rather than OCR, but a friend found an obituary in it that wasn't in the TDA. She queried this at WDYTYA at Olympia, since the Times had a stand there and they found the actual cutting for her. I would have expected obituaries to have appeared in all the editions, but evidently not.Phoenix - with charred feathers
Researching Skillings from Norfolk, Sworn from Salisbury and Adams in Malborough, Devon.
Comment
-
I have to say that I have found the Palmers Index more accurate than the online Times as one of my ancestors comes up as he should do on the Palmers index but not in the digital online Times Index, no matter what I key in and I have tried just surname and initials as well as two first names but no luck.
Janet
Comment
-
Originally posted by annswabey View PostThanks Merry, although I don't know how you arrive at that figure!
Sadly, by searching for different works and counting the numbers of correct results against incorrect results :o. Some words, or combinations of words do produce more incorrect results, so maybe I should have added that for ordinary work combinations I have found the number of "misses" to be about 90-95% but for more unusual words the "misses" are much higher, even up to as much as 100% misses! lol
Lies, damn lies and statistics!
Comment
Comment