Find Ancestors

I know I am not the only person here driven batty by the presentation of census, IGI and other info in threads.

I'm going to give an example -- not to single anyone out, it's just the latest one I ran into that prompted this post, one I've been thinking of writing for ages.

This was the post in a thread:

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1841

Piece: SCT1841/762 Place: Innerleithen -Peebles-shire Enumeration District: 1
Civil Parish: Innerleithen Ecclesiastical Parish, Village or Island: -
Folio: 0 Page: 16
Address: -



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Surname First name(s) Sex Age Occupation Where Born Remarks
BRODIE Charles M 35 Joiner Peebles-shire
BRODIE Lilias F 30 Peebles-shire
BRODIE Adam M 4 Peebles-shire
BRODIE James M 1 Peebles-shire


Piece: SCT1841/762 Place: Innerleithen -Peebles-shire Enumeration District: 3
Civil Parish: Innerleithen Ecclesiastical Parish, Village or Island: -
Folio: 324 Page: 1
Address: Purveshill



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Surname First name(s) Sex Age Occupation Where Born Remarks
TAIT James M 58 Agricultural Labourer Peebles-shire
TAIT Margaret F 53 Outside Census County (1841)
TAIT James M 25 Agricultural Labourer Outside Census County (1841)
GRAY Christian F 15 Female Servant Outside Census County (1841)
MATHESON David M 10 Agricultural Labourer Peebles-shire



Submitted record

IGI Individual Record FamilySearch™ International Genealogical Index v5.0
British Isles
Search Results | Download | Print

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LILIAS TAIT Pedigree
Female


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Event(s):
Birth: 04 MAY 1811

Christening: 09 JUN 1811 Innerleithen, Peebles, Scotland

Parents:
Father: JAMES TAIT Family
Mother: MARGT. BRODIE


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Messages:
Form submitted by a member of the LDS Church. The form lists the submitter's name and address and may include source information. The address may be outdated. Details vary. To find the form, you must know the batch and sheet number.


Results for: All Countries
Father: James Tait, Mother: Margaret Brodie

International Genealogical Index / British Isles - 3

1. LILIAS TAIT - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Female Christening: 09 JUN 1811 Innerleithen, Peebles, Scotland

2. CHARLES TAIT - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Christening: 20 APR 1809 Innerleithen, Peebles, Scotland

3. ALEXR. TAIT - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Christening: 20 OCT 1813 Innerleithen, Peebles, Scotland




IGI Individual Record FamilySearch™ International Genealogical Index v5.0
British Isles
Search Results | Download | Print

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JAMES TAIT Pedigree
Male Family

Marriages:
Spouse: MARGARET BRODIE Family
Marriage: 21 OCT 1808 Edinburgh Parish, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland



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Messages:
Extracted marriage record for locality listed in the record. The source records are usually arranged chronologically by the marriage date.


IGI Individual Record FamilySearch™ International Genealogical Index v5.0
British Isles
Search Results | Download | Print

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LILIAS TAIT Pedigree
Female Family


Marriages:
Spouse: CHARLES BRODIE Family
Marriage: 26 MAY 1837 Innerleithen, Peebles, Scotland



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Messages:
Form submitted by a member of the LDS Church. The form lists the submitter's name and address and may include source information. The address may be outdated. Details vary. To find the form, you must know the batch and sheet number.



1861 Census

Name: Lillias Brodie
Age: 48
Estimated birth year: abt 1813
Relationship: Wife
Spouse's name : Charles Brodie
Gender: Female
Where born: Innerleithen, Peeblesshire
Registration Number: 762
Registration district: Innerleithen
Civil parish: Innerleithen
County: Peeblesshire
Address: High St
ED: 2
Household schedule number: 75b
Line: 3
Roll: CSSCT1861_138
Household Members: Name Age
Charles Brodie 57 b. England
Lillias Brodie 48
Adam Brodie 23
Ann Brodie 18
Charles Brodie 16
William Brodie 12
Margret Ainslee 44 Boarder
John Simpson 19 Boarder

Source Citation: Parish: Innerleithen; ED: 2; Page: 13; Line: 3; Roll CSSCT1861_138; Year: 1861.

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That has used up almost all of my 5000 characters already. So the next post will be how I would love to see it presented. Be patient!

I guess its taking ages for you to re- present the info, page jumping about left right and centre, which is why I have ceased faffing about with it.

The following is a much more readable version of the same copied and pasted data, with all the extraneous things deleted that
(a) take up a huge amount of space and make it necessary to scroll constantly in order to see different parts;
(b) include all sorts of complete unnecessary bits from web pages; and
(c) probably confuse a newbie mightily.

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1841

Place: Innerleithen -Peebles-shire Enumeration District: 1
Civil Parish: Innerleithen Ecclesiastical Parish, Village or Island: -
BRODIE Charles M 35 Joiner Peebles-shire
BRODIE Lilias F 30 Peebles-shire
BRODIE Adam M 4 Peebles-shire
BRODIE James M 1 Peebles-shire

Place: Innerleithen -Peebles-shire Enumeration District: 3
Civil Parish: Innerleithen Ecclesiastical Parish, Village or Island: -
Address: Purveshill
TAIT James M 58 Agricultural Labourer Peebles-shire
TAIT Margaret F 53 Outside Census County (1841)
TAIT James M 25 Agricultural Labourer Outside Census County (1841)
GRAY Christian F 15 Female Servant Outside Census County (1841)
MATHESON David M 10 Agricultural Labourer Peebles-shire


Submitted record

LILIAS TAIT
Birth: 04 MAY 1811
Christening: 09 JUN 1811 Innerleithen, Peebles, Scotland
Father: JAMES TAIT
Mother: MARGT. BRODIE


Results for: All Countries
Father: James Tait, Mother: Margaret Brodie
International Genealogical Index / British Isles - 3

1. LILIAS TAIT - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Female Christening: 09 JUN 1811 Innerleithen, Peebles, Scotland
2. CHARLES TAIT - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Christening: 20 APR 1809 Innerleithen, Peebles, Scotland
3. ALEXR. TAIT - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Christening: 20 OCT 1813 Innerleithen, Peebles, Scotland


JAMES TAIT
Spouse: MARGARET BRODIE
Marriage: 21 OCT 1808 Edinburgh Parish, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland


LILIAS TAIT
Spouse: CHARLES BRODIE
Marriage: 26 MAY 1837 Innerleithen, Peebles, Scotland
[submitted record]


1861 Census

Name: Lillias Brodie
Age: 48
Estimated birth year: abt 1813
Relationship: Wife
Spouse's name : Charles Brodie
Gender: Female
Where born: Innerleithen, Peeblesshire
Registration Number: 762
Registration district: Innerleithen
Civil parish: Innerleithen
County: Peeblesshire
Address: High St

Charles Brodie 57 b. England
Lillias Brodie 48
Adam Brodie 23
Ann Brodie 18
Charles Brodie 16
William Brodie 12
Margret Ainslee 44 Boarder
John Simpson 19 Boarder

See how *infinitely* easier it is to see the actual information in the post??

Yes, it takes maybe two minutes to go back over the copy and paste and delete all the bumph.

My humble opinion is that it is very much worth that time, for the benefit of anyone, "volunteer helpers" and members looking for help both, trying to get a handle on what has been posted.

Have I convinced anyone not already on board? ;)

Hmm, Minnie, actually, as you see, it took less than five minutes, and that included recopying and repasting the info, and composing my introductory remarks.

Jumping pages, I wouldn't know. I don't think I have that power. ;)

And what you or anyone does or doesn't do with it -- your choice!! Thanks for the valuable input though, eh?



Myself, I just don't copy half of that bumph in the first place.

I do, however, try to remember to always give the url for the site where search results come from, if it's accessible to the poster free of charge (FreeBMD, the IGI, pilot.familysearch). And write a short sentence saying what the info is.


I also can never figure out where all the dotted lines and triple spacing in people's FreeBMD results come from.

Mine look like:

Marriages Sep 1906 (>99%)
DAVIES Sarah Jane Bedwellty 11a 151 Scan available - click to view
HISCOCK Bertram Edward Bedwelty 11a 151 Scan available - click to view
JAMES William Bedwellty 11a 151 Scan available - click to view
Warn Margaret Ann Bedwellty 11a 151

and then I block and delete the bumph so it looks like:

Marriages Sep 1906
DAVIES Sarah Jane Bedwellty 11a 151
HISCOCK Bertram Edward Bedwelty 11a
JAMES William Bedwellty 11a 151
Warn Margaret Ann Bedwellty 11a 151

I have a problem. When on laptop/pc not a problem editing the bumph however, when on iPhone, which I am a lot of the time, I simply cannot scroll up and down in the reply box. It won't let me

But can see where you are coming from and your edit was a lot clearer.

My son recently came up with a simple tip.

When I paste a long record into the little message box I can only see a few lines at a time. If I scroll through to delete something it immediately jumps to the top so I cannot see what I am editing.

Solution is to open word pad and prepare and edit on there. when prepared copy and paste into the reply box.

If it fails to send it is not lost as it is still on Word pad.

I'm with you all the way on this one Janey. :-))) I always delete the extraneous bumph!! *polishes halo* lol

Many a time I've clicked on a thread that I think I might be interested in helping on and found some info already pasted on there that's soooooooooo long, I can't be bothered to even read it all.

Mary

The little tiny message box is an abomination. I find that the "add" box rather than the "reply" box offers a little more room and clarity. You do have to be careful to copy the content of your post before submitting, because if anything goes wrong, it's lost. (With "reply" you can backpage and reopen reply, and your post is still there. At least in my browser.)

Submitting posts on a phone, I can't even imagine doing that! It has occurred to me how many people these days are posting from phones -- and how it's probably a contributing factor in all the terse, uninformative and ill-mannered-looking requests for help we're seeing these days ...

And aren't our posts a joy to behold, Contrary Mary. ;)

Some of us recently remarked how we lose the will to live when reading census data copied intact from searches in records here at GR. We persuaded one person, anyway, to at least add a space between all those householder1s and householder2s etc.!

I would say that using a phone is no excuse for the ill-mannered and uninformative threads. I put that down to laziness.

They most certainly are cousin Janey ;-)

Errr, I never actually did find a link through our 007 James Bond........but as he's only my imaginary father anyway, what the heck! LOL My cases are packed and I shall be avisiting you soonest, cousin. LOL

Mary

TootyFruity

I have similar problems as in the evening I use my iPod

So I select all - copy and paste onto my Notes App - editing is much easier -

This is for my own look up records - then email the edited version to myself - and open the email later on my laptop and save to my WP

Irene

Thanks for the suggestion Irene, I will try that.

The clearer the info the better.

Now if we can just get Irene to stop leaving those giant blank spaces behind in threads!!! ;) -- also, I understand, a function of using those phone things ...

I did say I had no intention of singling anyone out -- that post was just a handy example of c&p from a couple of sources.

Here's another kind I was wanting an example of -- I think this may be from FMP:


HERONSHAW, Abraham Head Married M 47 1804 Blacksmith
Offerton
Derbyshire VIEW
HERONSHAW, Ann Wife Married F 49 1802
Ashover
Derbyshire VIEW
BERRISFORD, James Grand Son M 4 1847 At Home
Sheffield
Yorkshire VIEW

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RG number:
HO107 Piece:
2343 Folio:
358 Page:
46

Registration District:
Rotherham Sub District:
Rotherham Enumeration District:
5G Ecclesiastical Parish:


Civil Parish:
Rotherham Municipal Borough:
Address:
Westgate, Rotherham County:
Yorkshire (West riding)



Now, my version, which is both condensed for easy reading on the monitor (with bumph removed -- and I have seen more than one newbie confused about things like "view" and "click here to see ...") and rearranged slightly (the final bits) so it actually looks the way it did in the original, and makes sense:


HERONSHAW, Abraham Head Married M 47 1804 Blacksmith Offerton Derbyshire
HERONSHAW, Ann Wife Married F 49 1802 Ashover Derbyshire
BERRISFORD, James Grand Son M 4 1847 At Home Sheffield Yorkshire

Registration District: Rotherham
Sub District: Rotherham
Enumeration District: 5G
Civil Parish: Rotherham
Address: Westgate, Rotherham
County: Yorkshire (West riding)

I alway go in and delete the extras Also like to look at the actual census pages and add the address and occ and place of birth for each of the household including where neccesary if someone was the lodger or domestic servant . I like to add that info onto my tree as its rounds the family out.

And conversely -- when someone is, say, an inmate of a workhouse -- the entire list of occupants in the "household" just isn't needed! ;)

I agree with everything you have said Janey and try to keep my information as condensed as possible and copy and paste only what is necessary. There is nothing worse, in my opinion, than trying to read through one of the GR 1911 census transcriptions that hasn't been spaced out. I tend to lose the will to live half way through them.
My other bugbear is double or triplicate postings. When someone posts the 1881 census in response to a request
why do three other people have to post the same census anything up to five minutes later. Don't they read the thread to see what has already been posted. Don't they check after they have posted to ensure it hasn't been duplicated and if it has then delete it. Why leave it there? Only one is needed after all. After the 3 1881 come 2 1891 followed by another 1881 and then the 1901 three times.
It must be a nightmare for the OP to have to search through pages of information that could have so easily only have been 1 page if the duplicated info had been deleted.
Just a thought while I am waiting for dinner to cook.

I'm with you on all that. ;)

Even if two or three people post, say, a census record at about the same time, because they did the search and posted before realizing someone else was doing it almost simultaneously -- why not delete it when than happens? If you still want to follow the thread, just edit the post to delete the content and say something like "deleted duplicate 1881 record", and that way it stays in yr "My threads" -- but doesn't fill that thread up with noise!