Genealogy Chat

What baffled me is that it really wasn't that difficult to read the online image. The mistranscriptions seemed somehow wilful at times. I can (just) understand that someone might not notice that other occupants of the same house don't all have the head's surname but how can you misread Prudence as Frederica? (I suppose the letters are vaguely similar in shape - but the image just is NOT that bad.) Christine

Ancestry seem to use Americans to transcribe who don't appear to have any common sense when it comes to geography. If they can't make a place into a state (ie Penn, which is not an abbreviation, becomes Pennsylvania), then they do their hardest to turn it into a foreign country. Surely the company has enough to money to provide employees with an atlas!

I found my best ever 'Ancestry Error' a few weeks ago when doing a lookup for someone else; place of birth on image was Meare, Som. but had been transcribed as Meare, Somalia! Someone said on here recently that those of us doing transcribing voluntarily for FreeBMD and FreeCEN are far more vigilant than those getting paid to do it for Ancestry! Mandy :)

And I forgot to mention that Martha SMITH age 70 is listed as Mascha Smith age 40. How IS anyone supposed to find their ancestors with that sort of transcription? Christine

That is bizarre. Thanks - the Luscombes could well be mine. will have to do a bit of digging. It now makes me think I shall have to start trawling through pages of 1861. Trouble is, I can't even find the street I need in the enumerators descriptions. Best wishes, Jill

They're in Portland Place, Stoke Damerel, Devon: ABRAHAM family: Thomas listed as Sema...; Prudence as Frederica; Willm Thos as Nell W Josiah W CARNE listed as Joseph... Susan JAMES born at/on sea listed as born 'Msea, Bom' Kate CLEMENTS listed as Kate Flewellyn; born Harberton, Devon - listed as Ha??, Devon Geo Wm Hy LOBB listed as Geo Wm M...; Jessie LOBB, b Teignmouth - listed as b Dergwmouth, Devon RICHARDSON family all listed as Pichardo; Lilian listed as Celena, Edwin as Edward TREMEER family listed as Preisner; Ida listed as Ada, Matilda (mother & daughter) listed as Malinda LUSCOMBE family as Juscomll. Edith KEMP, b Cornwall ? listed as Edith Smith b ??; her son John A also given the Head's surname, Smith, but should be KEMP. Thomas S MILES b Whitchurch, Devon listed as Thomas C Smith b Macclesfield, Devon; his wife Jessie, b Brixham, listed as Jessie Smith b Berdtan, Devon William THORNTON listed as William Thomson and a couple (at least) of the ages were out a bit and one by 20 years! I think that's all! I've submitted corrections to Ancestry - but if you're looking for any of these - have another look at the page. I found the TREMEERs by looking for the address - they'd been living at the same address for the censuses either side of 1891, so I was convinced they must be there for 1891. Christine

Relates to: RG12/1746 fo41 p6. --- Hope that none of the punctuation elements prevent anyone adding to this... I was looking for a sideline of my husband's family and - eventually - found them. Of the thirty (30) names on the page, about three (3) seem to be not in need of correction! I'll list the errors I remembered in a 'reply', in case anyone's looking for them. --- Presumably this won't be the only page by this transcriber.