Genealogy Chat

Reading Julie's thread about Norfolk made me smile. One of my Northumberland families is shown as coming from Northland. well I know it is OOP NORTH but some of these mistranscriptions are just plain daft. Anyone got any really stupid ones?

Some of their mistranscriptions are really annoying. I spent ages trying to find one of my rellies sisters, but didn't know her married name. I finally thought I'd located her when they were together (widowed) on the 1901 census. But our favourite optically challenged friends had transcribed her name as Priston. It should read BOISTON. It's only taken me 2 months to work out what it should have been!

Another I've just found... in 1891 a family living in the same street as mine, has a child with the name 'Bolton, Baby Not Christund' Really makes me wonder about the native language of these transcribers.

lol Ann!! That must be why I can't find my Rotherhithe lot, they were all hiding in Rotherham!! :0) Joan

I'm amazed by the mistranscriptions. Best I've found is Buckingham Palace = Polan, Buckinghamshire, England or Pread, Buckinghamshire, England on the 1851 Doesn't HRH give you a bit of a clue!! No These were both on the same page!! Penny

It isn't just Ancestry - the 1901 official govt site has place of birth Limpenhoe mistranscribed as Limperhoe (understandable, but incorrect) and the very uncorrect sounding Limperhal. I've also found Camligger instead of Cambridge, even when another family member on the same household is correctly transcribed as born in Cambridge. If transcribers had to use a gazetteer this wouldn't happen. nell

And I've found Exeter in Poland! Angela

Was looking for a London-born relly, and couldn't find them anywhere with London as county of birth. So then I tried with London in the keywords box rather than in the county box - and my name popped up - born in St. London, Oxfordshire!! When I looked at the image, it actually said ''Oxford St, London'', so could see how the mistake occurred in that case, at least! Richard

Henley on Thames has been towed down the river and is now in Essex. Ashby de la Zouch has moved from Leicestershire to Leichtenstein.

Yes, I have come across some bad transcriptions on Ancestry. If they have transcribed the name incorrectly when it is clearly readable, I always report the error. Hope you folks all do the same. I like to think I am making it easier for anyone who comes after me! Cheers, Lynn

My gggrandfather was born in Flava according to the 1871. I admit the image is bad but if I can make out it says France then someone employed to transcribe should be able to read it too. Course can't yet report that to ancestry yet as they're only taking name mistranscriptions. As for the 1851, before they withdrew that from my grasp I found one of my Horsup's transcribed as Horkep. The best one yet is from the 1901 where one of the Macaree's was listed as a corsaque maker. i had visions of her running about with Russians but turned out she made corsages for weddings.

Family historians are taught to transcribe exactly what they see, no matter how bizarre it appears. Ancestry do not follow this rule. They appear to have birthplace codes, so that if one character is wrong, Kent is translated as Kenya etc. This I find irritating in the extreme, but am forced to live with. What is much more difficult, especially for beginners, is the spelling of some of the birthplaces. I can establish how many people were born in France or Sweden or Russia, but not who was born in Prussia. If I remember correctly, Prussia is rendered as Preben, with one of those back to front Bs. I've tried looking at 'help' on Ancestry, but it doesn't even recognise Prussia as a search term.

I'm finding a lot of my hubby's Irish rellies apparently came from Poland. The names don't look, or sound, the remotest bit foreign. This is in Lancashire where there were a lot of Irish people coming in via Liverpool, so its not unusual to have Ireland as a place of birth. Why don't they use a bit of common sense if something looks strange, instead of putting the first thing that comes to mind?

I had to have a laugh last night when checking for my great great grandfather...found a likely candidate but he was 333 years old!!!! As if they couldn't guess this might not be quite true! Also Jemima shown as Gimimmer..but that was the image too, I guess they couldn't spell their own name. LOL

mine was not a silly as others... but my clapton was often typed as Clopton. Another one was Smithy who appeared in the 1881, but disappeared in 1891. It was not until when I looked at the census record themselves, that I realised that 'Smithy' was 'Timothy!' So, it goes to show you, that it does pay to check original work! N.

Jess has just located my missing Ellen Tooley transcribed as Texley although the image is clearly Tooley And my 3xgrandmother Mathilda Warburton is on 1861 as Wombomton No wonder it took me forever to find her

I too have looked for Prussian relatives , the only way is to copy and paste the 'preusen' with the funny 'S' it then brings up matches, of course this means you have to find one first! And mine was Prussian 'Nat. Brit Subj' which was clear on the image but ancestry put 'Apina Mat Bri Nui' has anyone ever heard of that country! Kim

When I was new to the Internet, I fell on the LDS 1881 with great joy, but was rather puzzled that I couldnt find a particular branch of the family. I trawled the same names again and again and AGAIN, ignoring a family who were apparently born in Lanarkshire. Took ages for the penny to drop - there isn't, as far as I know, either a Rochdale or an Oldham in Lanarkshire, they are in Lancashire. Whoever transcribed it, made a typo and put Lanacshire - the computer picked that up and translated it as Lanarkshire! Olde Crone

Having spent the best part of 90 minutes trawling thru I came across this;- Samuel' Roberti Nichols Josephus Ed'r'i Unwin Sara Lawrencii Pearson Maria Johis Oxspring Martha Johis Newbould Sara Humphr'i Wilkinson Martha Roberti Pointon Sara Symonis Stones Maria Roberti Boughton Maria Gilberti Turner Sara Stephani Fox Vital: location, Yorkshire, England ...can someone please decipher...I'm still looking for my Samuel Nichols...do you think I have Italian in my blood line??

Don't know what you have been trawling, but you've got it in Latin - old baptisms by the look of it! Olde Crone