Genealogy Chat

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Just been looking at original census images of 1891 for my Smoothy lot. I am staggered I ever found any of them. The parents, John and Ann are down as Smithy, as is their youngest daughter, despite the image being perfectly clear. Their eldest daughter Elizabeth is down as Smithy too, although she is listed underneath her husband, Charles Vine, with ditto marks underneath his surname. To cap it all, Ann's place of birth is transcribed as St Poyce [wherever that is] when it says on the image Stoke Poges. nell

HI when starting off couldnt find anything on my grandfathers family BRICE they had all been put on census as BRIERS if it hadnt been for 2 lovely ladies on the research board id still be looking lol, suex

looking for some ancestors born Cradley I found several with place of birth Cradley Erileptia. Never heard of that hamlet so looked at original...... turned out one child of a family was epileptic and the transcriber had given the suffix to the whole family! netti

Whilst looking for someone on 1851 census I found the BACKHOUSE family transcribed as SHACK HOUSE. In addition Debra was transcribed as Delora, and Jemima transcribed as Kimana. Luckily it´s not one of mine - but I pity the poor soul who is searching for them! Elaine

I love it! Keep them coming.

Hi Nell I was searching for a family named Baxter recently and found it had been indexed as Barler, Baxton, Bascte (think of a curvy x, lol) and one I found only by trawling the neighbourhood. Heather

Despite being perfectly clear on the census, just some of mine which I can remember are: Jane transcribed as Lane, even though the mother is also Jane, Robinson as Roberson, even though there's another Robinson on the list and they're obviously sisters, the male Head of the family described as wife's mother (?!). Some of the place names have been hilarious but I'll have to check them first and as I discovered last night, regional accents clearly confused English enumerators at times! Daisy

Kingermingery is a lovely word. It would be great on Call My Bluff!!!! nell

Definitely. My definitions for kingermingery would be: a) a form of crochet b) a dish involving kippers c) alternative for tomfoolery or playing about, involving kittens or other small furry animals d) an improvised musical instrument made from wires and wool nell

Hi Nell, I have mentioned this one before, 1861 Ancestry insist that HMS Britania was in Portsmouth Harbour, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE!!!! I tried expaining that Northamptonshire is landlocked but they would have none of it.lol My aunt Inez Anne became Iringar on the 1901 & in 1851 my 2x gt grandfather, the head of the family Barker is transcribed as Danker. These things are sent to try us Vivienne

Just found my Isabell Wright listed as Isabella WEDTY. Jenny

I know the feeling. My Rollins family are down as Rollings, and a Wyatt ancestor is down as Wyat. Hannah Markham is Hanna on one census, and Annah on another census. Not much difference in it, but it matters. Reuben is spelt Ruben, and Cornelius is spelt Cornelious on one census. Also one lad is listed as step-son but then its crossed out. What a help that is!

My Grandad was listed as being ten years older because someone had mistaken a 'tick' for a one! This despite the fact that all the ages had the tick next to them! Luckily I knew his exact birth date otherwise I would have been flummoxed!!

Looking for my husband's family the other day on the 1851 census. Looking for the name HOMEWOOD mistranscribed as FAMEWASH!!!!!!!! so they only managed to get three letter's of the name correct! Carol

Another one I found since was that someone had transcribed DENBIGHSHIRE as DEVONSHIRE - easy enough except the town was WREXHAM! I contacted Ancestry but they won't do anything about such obvious howlers.

Cas** I think firstly you have to go and live in a non-English-speaking country. Then you get paid about £1 a month to do the transcribing working a 20 hour day six and a half days a week. (OK, I'm guessing!) So by paying our Ancestry subs are we supporting slave-labour?????? Of course, they could have sought out volunteers who might have been more accurate and definitely would have been cheeper, but the other way was quicker!! Merry

when looking for my great grandmother and grandmother who are both called tryphena, found it in one census as trevenna and in another as stephana

Looking for Nell's Matthews on Ancestry in 1881 - and I think that the unpaid labour of naive fools like me must have been used for that index, or why are some of the errors the same? - I was searching by the first three letters of a place name. There are bound to be errors in the original (Armston is an enumerator's rendition of Hempstead in Norfolk.) but even so it was an eye opener to see how much gibberish there was in the index. And that's the one compiled by family historians, with the help of a few prisoners.

Found one of my families where the head of the household was born 1824 and he had a son born 1831! It wasn't an error in the date either as the son was listed as 'occupation Porter.'