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  • Correcting mistranscriptions.

    I sent in a correction to FMP for a wrongly spelt road on the 1911 census.

    I got an email back today telling me 'Thankyou for your email but there is not enough evidence to change our findings.'

    ???? I have that road name on every census... have three certificates for the family at that address and the road still exists now

    What more 'evidence' do they need lol

    Linda

  • #2
    I presume if the road name is actually spelt incorrectly on the census form then there is nothing they can do - they are providing a transcription of what has been entered on the form regardless of whether the data on the form has been spelt correctly.
    Elaine







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    • #3
      It is very frustrating isn't it? I have lots of placenames misrecorded on censuses and they all stand because that is what was written.

      Future censuses should be done online with a drop down menu so you can't get the placename wrong!

      Its annoying that Ancestry offer no facility to put an alternative place name as you can with personal names. I found North Cerney in Glos recorded as Serney in one census. Must have been written by someone with local knowledge surely!!!!
      ~ with love from Little Nell~
      Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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      • #4
        I have no problem with accurate transcriptions of original errors/incorrect spellings/information etc. (I have always recorded "what is there" when making my own transcriptions, and have added a note of what I believe it SHOULD say.) Although these can be maddening, I find it part "of the charm" of research.
        Transcriptions "correcting" original entries throw up a hole can of worms for me - where does it stop? Correcting the spelling of a name/a place, or does it go on to include ammending an age, a place of birth, a relationship etc?

        I do have a problem with genuine mistranscriptions, though, and feel that if what has been transcribed differs from the original, then it should be ammended.

        Jay
        Janet in Yorkshire



        Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

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        • #5
          I blush with shame when I remember one bossy instruction I gave years ago when I spotted what I THORT was a mistranscription, lol!

          "Dearne" I said "Is obviously meant to be Darwen".

          Um, no it wasn't, there really is a place called Dearne.

          Fortunately it was only on someone's private tree, but imagine the havoc I could have wreaked if it had been on a public site.

          OC

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          • #6
            I was convinced that my gt grandmother was born in Langley, Norfolk as she was living in Limpenhoe which is nearby.

            Later on I found she was born in Langham, Norfolk which is many miles north!

            On the other hand, there is only one Limpenhoe though it is mangled on many censuses.
            ~ with love from Little Nell~
            Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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            • #7
              I think it would be helpful if 1911 had a system like Ancestry's where you can report a probable error, which can be recorded alongside the original transcription, and searched in parallel. That helps to get around the original-error as well as actual mistranscriptions.

              1911 won't look at offered items for review - only if you pay for a transcription or image. I can see an example where a friend's ancestor has an incorrect final letter in part of the name, but they won't consider looking at it. Nor will they look at things like Willliam.

              To be fair, in the 1901 census, I knew that there was a mistranscription because my grandmother, Alice, had been given the first name Harris. Blatantly wrong... except that the image does, indeed, show "Harris". I mentioned it to a cousin, and she said that she thought that someone might have mentioned that Alice had sometimes opted to be called "Harris". This is the same Alice who decided to tack Roma on as a first name, later on. Luckily, I did know about that or I'd never have found her death record!

              Christine
              Researching: 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)...

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              • #8
                I was born in a village called Penshaw, on old maps it is Painshaw and on census is often found as Pensher as that is how folk in the NE often pronounce Penshaw.
                Daphne

                Looking for Northey, Goodfellow, Jobes, Heal, Lilburn, Curry, Gay, Carpenter, Johns, Harris, Vigus from Cornwall, Somerset, Durham, Northumberland, Cumberland, USA, Australia.

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                • #9
                  Today I found someone on a census whose birthplace is Newton, Bedfordshire - but on all other censuses its Luton. Clearly a case of someone mishearing which is what may have happened with Alice and Harris.
                  ~ with love from Little Nell~
                  Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Janet in Yorkshire View Post
                    Correcting the spelling of a name/a place, or does it go on to include ammending an age, a place of birth, a relationship etc?

                    I do have a problem with genuine mistranscriptions, though, and feel that if what has been transcribed differs from the original, then it should be ammended.

                    Jay
                    I think there is "somebody" who goes through them and makes assumptions about maiden names. Twice now, I have had to correct a correction where the mother is staying with her daughter and "somebody" has submitted a surname alternative which is wrong because the mother had remarried. :(
                    Caroline
                    Caroline's Family History Pages
                    Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      As long as the transcriber transcribed what was written on the original it should be left as it is.

                      I am totally opposed to this latest craze of adding possible corrections.
                      I feel is prevents the novice researcher exercising their brain and trying to find a solution for themselves.
                      In years to come if this catches on nobody will be able to research they will all be foxed when a mistake leads to a dead end.

                      Already we are in a situation where people do not realise that it was only comparatively recently that spelling was standardised.
                      We keep reading of spelling mistakes in census or registers because the people were illiterate or the clerk misheard the name because of an accent etc.
                      Rubbish the name was spelt phonetically words were spelt as they sounded and there was no correct or incorrect form.

                      The sooner we step back from this spoon-feed culture the sooner we start thinking for ourselves again.
                      Cheers
                      Guy
                      Last edited by Guy; 19-07-09, 21:49.
                      Guy passed away October 2022

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Caroline

                        I did hear that Ancestry had a programme which went through the census picking up "mother, mother in law, father, father in law" and ASSUMED maiden names.

                        I too have found this assumption is nearly always wrong as the mother/mother in law has remarried, sometimes several times.

                        Guy

                        I agree that if the transcription records what was written - Geroge for George, for example, or Riddle for Riddell, then that is ok. It is when the transcription is wildly wrong that a correction should be made.

                        I have a family of Bell, mistranscribed variously as Ball, Bill, Bull, which I found without much difficulty. Took me quite a while to pick them up as HILL, SUTT and....TEMPEST!!!!

                        Looking at the original images, only "HILL" was in doubt, (scruffy handwriting) but because I personally "knew" the family and knew that was where they lived, I could confirm it was Bell and not Hill. Surely that has to be helpful rather than spoon-feeding? I don't believe family history necessarily has to cause pain to do you good!

                        OC

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                        • #13
                          hmmm... I think obvious mistranscriptions should be corrected, when you can plainly see that Ancestry or whoever has misread the actual census form.

                          I believe Ancestry has an automatic correction so that if the surname of the head of the household is corrected, then that correction is also applied to the rest of the household. In a couple of cases this has resulted in errors being made, giving (eg) stepchildren the wrong surname, so researchers need to remember to check the actual census record.

                          Myself, I'd always enter a correction where the entry is obviously mistranscribed or difficult to read.

                          Thanks to some very clever sleuthing, my Cray family living near Leicester Sq, London, in 1851, were eventually tracked down having been transcribed as Overoy. I'd even resorted to a street-by-street search of the area & missed them. It took some imagination to read the actual entry as Cray.
                          But having entered the correction, I was contacted by another descendent who had been searching for this family for the best part of 20 years. He'd done the street-by-street thing too & also missed them.

                          In another case, someone else entered an alternative name for one of my families - HAGAN - though the census entry (& all my research) had this family as HAKIN (give or take a couple of minor spelling variants). When I contacted the submitter, she told me she had picked up this surname from 2 separate certificates - a birth & a marriage - and was stuck because she couldn't find the chap's parents. She assumed that with a name like HAGAN they were probably Irish - and had been told by her grandparents that there was an Irish connection. Once I was sure we were indeed looking at the same family I could help her get further back, by looking for HAKINs in Northumberland, rather than giving up at the prospect of the brick wall of pre-1850 Irish research without even knowing which area to start in.
                          Vicky

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                          • #14
                            I think the possibility of correcting placenames is a whole different ballgame though. Many spellings have changed over time & I think (on the whole) I'd prefer to stick to the originals - as these are also likely to be what you'd come across in the PRs or Wills etc.
                            So I don't mind seeing Allenton for Alwinton, and I can also live with Reedsdale for Redesdale.

                            But I do wish that there was a facility to correct some of the obvious howlers that haunt Ancestry.

                            And it would be nice to be able to correct entries like Punnelton - a Northumbrian enumerator struggling with the broad Lancashire accent of a chap from Pendleton, Salford. (If you've lived there you'll know its not too far removed from how the locals pronounce it!)
                            Last edited by Vicky the Viking; 19-07-09, 18:32.
                            Vicky

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                            • #15
                              my 4th great grandmother's marriage on the igi is recorder as turyfon. her name was twyford. looking at the image, it is faded, horrible, scribbly handwriting, so you can see the mistake!!

                              but like it's been said, if it is a place name, there should be a correction next to it, or if the transcriber has stuffed up, other than that it is pointless, and you cant trust the other researcher's to get it right. they may have assumed a wife's maiden name without buying certs, and she may have been married before. or a husband may be given the wrong parents because his step father is with him.

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