Ancestry.com ...question

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Little Man Smith

Ancestry.com ...question

Legg inn av Little Man Smith » 27 aug 2004 19:10:06

Has anyone else notice a problem there with them mis-spelling last names
from the census? Out of 3 generations I looked for, I searched for the
census information by the information provided by marriage and death
certificates, and they do not show up in the census ... yet when I search
the county and state by first name, they are their with the wrong last
names. Thank goodness for rural USA and unique first names. Has anyone
else ran into this problem with Ancestry.com or anyother service?

Gjest

Re: Ancestry.com ...question

Legg inn av Gjest » 27 aug 2004 22:23:12

When you say "wrong last names" do you mean totally different last names
or simply misspelled last names?

I can tell you that when reading handwritten census records, it is
easier to look at a name and find your folks when you know what you're
looking for than when you don't know what the name is supposd to be.

For the transcribers who do the indexes, they go with what they think it
might be since they don't have any way to know what it _should_ be like
you do.

MisNomer

Re: Ancestry.com ...question

Legg inn av MisNomer » 27 aug 2004 23:11:57

Yes, in the 1880 census at familysearch.org - out of perhaps 8 last names not
one was spelled as I have it. Sometimes it is the enemerators spelling and
sometimes the transcribers.

take care
Liz





On Fri, 27 Aug 2004 17:10:06 GMT, Little Man Smith <sebastian_bear@yahoo.com>
wrote:

Has anyone else notice a problem there with them mis-spelling last names
from the census? Out of 3 generations I looked for, I searched for the
census information by the information provided by marriage and death
certificates, and they do not show up in the census ... yet when I search
the county and state by first name, they are their with the wrong last
names. Thank goodness for rural USA and unique first names. Has anyone
else ran into this problem with Ancestry.com or anyother service?

Donna

Re: Ancestry.com ...question

Legg inn av Donna » 28 aug 2004 10:05:29

Yes, I find misspellings often---not only in Ancestry, but also in
FamilySearch and HeritageQuest. Careless and incomplete indexing also
drives me crazy!

One of the funniest misspellings in transcriptions I have seen recently is
(for a young baby) the name "Namelip." Of course, it was supposed to be
"Nameless." I guess the transcriber should have been given a lesson in
Victorian handwriting before he/she was let loose on the census
transcription project!

I find gross miss-transcriptions very frequently, and of course I find gross
misspellings made by the census-taker. I have run across a census taker or
two that I think were bearly literate themselves. Makes for interesting
reading.

And then there are those wonderfully conscientious census "enumerators" who
always had a pen nib full of ink and properly sharpened and whose
handwriting is classic and gloriously legible. It's a beautiful thing to
behold! :-}

These census-takers in the early days were laboring under difficult
conditions at times. This excerpt is taken from the official federal
training pamphlet for census-takers in 1860: "You will find it necessary
to provide a portable inkstand, with good ink and suitable pens. Each
portfolio will be accompanied with a sheet of blotting paper with which you
will carefully dry all entries made on the schedules." You can find the
whole instructions for 1860 here:
http://www.ipums.org/usa/voliii/inst1860.html

You may have read the poem "The First Day of Census." It is both humorous
and poignant, and it addresses the challenges of taking early censuses. If
you haven't read it, it is here:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~okgenweb/censu ... _taker.htm

[This is really off-topic, but I ran across the oddest thing recently. I
think it was 1880 in Sedalia, Missouri. It was a household of three or four
women and a child. The women's occupation was listed "Prostitute," and the
poor child's occupation was listed as "Illegitimate." Really strange.]

Warmest Regards-------------and good luck reading those census images and
transcriptions!

Donna in Texas





"Little Man Smith" <sebastian_bear@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:Xns955286220785Econstutionalburnerdo@24.24.2.167...
Has anyone else notice a problem there with them mis-spelling last names
from the census? Out of 3 generations I looked for, I searched for the
census information by the information provided by marriage and death
certificates, and they do not show up in the census ... yet when I search
the county and state by first name, they are their with the wrong last
names. Thank goodness for rural USA and unique first names. Has anyone
else ran into this problem with Ancestry.com or anyother service?

Bluegene

Re: Ancestry.com ...question

Legg inn av Bluegene » 29 aug 2004 09:14:05

Aye, I've found many of said errors - mostly mis-transcriptions of the
images. It goes beyond names on Ancestry.com, as well. We have a lot
of streets down here in south Louisiana named for Saints: Saint
Charles, St. Joseph, etc. But when we write the addresses, we put St.
Charles St. or St. Joseph St., etc. It seems the vigilant transcriber
of the census for Ancestry.com did not like abbreviations like that,
so he/she substituted as street Charles Street, street Joseph Street,
etc. Seems no one ever heard of the abbreviation of Saint as St.

Henry F. Brownlee
Hunting Forebears

MisNomer

Re: Ancestry.com ...question

Legg inn av MisNomer » 29 aug 2004 17:26:10

That sounds like an OCR error, but could be a human error too.

take care
Liz





On Sun, 29 Aug 2004 02:14:05 -0500, "Bluegene" <hfbrownl@bellsouth.net> wrote:

Aye, I've found many of said errors - mostly mis-transcriptions of the
images. It goes beyond names on Ancestry.com, as well. We have a lot
of streets down here in south Louisiana named for Saints: Saint
Charles, St. Joseph, etc. But when we write the addresses, we put St.
Charles St. or St. Joseph St., etc. It seems the vigilant transcriber
of the census for Ancestry.com did not like abbreviations like that,
so he/she substituted as street Charles Street, street Joseph Street,
etc. Seems no one ever heard of the abbreviation of Saint as St.

Henry F. Brownlee
Hunting Forebears



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