Genealogy Chat

No, ancestry pay their transcribers. If you go to their website they are often recruiting for various positions - but in Utah. From what Ive seen - remember the notorious listing obviously on a spare census sheet with all those people from foreign parts including pimps and the head being a international playboy? - It seems they must employ a lot of vacation students. The address entered as place of birth was a well known backpacking chain.

I've just started looking for my lot on 1851. So far I've got Macaree transcribed as Maxam and Horsup transcribed as Horkep. I can see I'm going to wear out my fingers submitting e-mails to ancestry. Thank God my Tocqueville's weren't in the country then!

Don't forget that at least you can eventually find them on ancestry if they have been mistranscribed, if you leave out the surname for example. But other sites, such as Scotland's People and some others, insist you put in at least 3 letters of the surname, and may not let you search by birthplace, so if the surname has been mangled, you may never find the entry at all. I would say you get what you pay for, and if ancestry paid people a decent wage to do the transcriptions we would find our subs going way up! But of course FreeCEN is regularly updated, and as it is done by volunteers, there should be fewer mistranscriptions on there. On the other hand, as it is free, searches tend to take ages. Kate.

Found my Hawkridge family as Himbinge....but it was worth the effort to find that they had a servant called Rosey Balls!

Searching for Ursula Wood, nee Ursula Hannah - found her transcribed as Surula in one census and Arsula in another!! The second one gave me a good laugh!! Lynne

The Telegraph report a few days ago on 1851 from Ancestry said it was transcribed in India. I had a relative in the 1901 census who's place of birth was transcribed as Stepney, Sussex, instead of Steyning. It was so obvious too. Not great when you are searching for William Cook.

I eventually found : Barnabus Bartram born Dickleburgh as Barsabus Basham born Dicklebone and I only managed that because he comes from a small Norfolk village so Iended up entering the first part of the village name and searching ten years either side of his birth. having read an entry of Nell's on another thread about capital L and capital S I also have a bunch of Sinkinsons to look into when I get home.

Job Lippiatt and family on various census, spelt - Lippeat, Lippeatt, Lippite, Lippitte, Lippert, Lippcott and Lippencott - the last 2 being on the same census, Job and wife as Lippencott and the rest of the family as Lippcott!!! It's taken me ages to find this lot - LOL!! Lynne

I came across a whole street of 'Jones' mistranscribed as 'Jabes'. As if that surname wasn't enough of a curse.

I've enjoyed reading some of the bizarre mistranscriptions, have come across quite a few myself but please don't blame the transcribers of the 1881 (who were mainly FHS volunteers) for the International playboy and his extensive household. If you look at the images (RG11/0020 folio 126 pages 47 and 48) someone knobbled the original enumerators book to add this household. That must have been done at the archives when access was allowed to the originals rather than by transcribers who were working from the filmed books.