Genealogy Chat

Having seen some original census returns, I can see why mistakes are made. It's a catch-22 situation when you have to know what it says in order to know what it says! Some returns and certificates look beautiful with flowing script, but I do wish they had insisted on CAPITAL LETTERS for everything sometimes! There are occasions in which an educated guess just isn't adequate! nell

my Atack family have been : Attack Atick Alack? Attwick Hatick The Alack was on 1901 census and when i viewed it itwas actually Atack but had been transcribed wrongly-i don`t think the person doing it was familiar with copperplate hand writing!! it does give me a headache trying to figure out what they would be under but hey no pain no gain!! regards Diane

Sear transcribed as Lear Medora transcribed as Madona Can anyone think of any for Bell or Jennings - or any more for Sear please??!! Maz. XX

I agree entirely, Carol. Joy

I have, from the 1901. Beaddek instead of Buddell Kim

Hi All GOODCHILD AS GOODSHILD BATTRUM AS BALLTRUM I expect there will be more if I ever find any more names Margaret

1881 Strouvelle as Stromwelle 1881 Grouville, Jersey as Gronville, Derby 1881 Ida As Ada and Torquay as Lorqucy 1891 Dale as Cale and Bale 1901 Dale as Dare and Date Also had Pursey as Peasy and Paewsey 1901 Strouvelle as Strovwelle and Strauvelle. 1901 Patrick as Partic and Parlick 1901 Maud as Mowed ! 1901 Ashton Keynes as Ashton Haynes and Ashton Lanes and Ashton Heines ,Wilts (The county ) as Wilks Kim

My KIRKLAND lot have been variously mistranscribed as : KIRTLAND HIRKLAND RICHLAND RICKLAND and I thought they'd been abducted by aliens!!

Molde, Wolden, Bolden, Golden = HOLDEN Rochdale and Oldham, both in Lanarkshire, Scotland! Grimham =Grimshaw (perfectly obvious on original) 0lne Ololeden = John Holden! Bell = Ball (and vice versa, spent ages switching from one to the other, so much so, I forgot who I was looking for!) Tehusa = Teresa Milliam = William Gren = Green Muttakne = Whittaker!

I agree with Carol that genealogist should transcribe their local area so would be familiar with family names and place names. Surely that would reduce mistakes. As far as my family tree mistranscriptions, the two that I remember most are: Dalle instead of Dove Hardley and Hanley instead of Handley. We'd been searching for the Doves for ages. No wonder we couldn't find them! Joanne

To make sense of original manuscripts must be an art which I don't possess. Having had copies of original images of births deaths and marriages from scotlandsland people which include beautiful writing and blurred and difficult to decipher writing that I have great difficulty reading. I still can't read if a wife's maiden name was Slight or Flight never mind whether it was correct spelling or not even though its beautiful writing. Another brick wall. So my thanks go out to those volunteers who actually have a go at transcription but perhaps it was rather unwise for the 1901 census to be transcribed by people with no knowledge of the country - it must have been an absolute nightmare for them and the people who were checking their work.

I have had Sarah Ann Slatter's death on Free BMD as Samuel Ann Slatter (got that one corrected!) and the Slatter family transcribed on the 1881 and 1891 censuses as Hatter and Statter. Wondered for months why I couldn't find them!

Middlesbrough instead of Middleton Tyas--took me down the wrong path for ages. Clericy instead of Cleasby Maybe not checked properly

My favourite is Ancestry taking Som. as Somalia instead of Somerset. Jane

I spent ages trying to find my great grandmother in the 1901 census - her family had been transcribed as Reniston rather than Penistone. With regard to place names, 'Yorkshire Dark' turned out to be 'Yorkshire Drax'. My great great grandfather is transcibed as William Cankill, instead of the correct 'Caukill'. The first mistake is understandable when the original is viewed, but the others seem to me to be obviously mistranscribed - but then, they are names that I know very well! Pat

maybe this is why I can't find my family! Karen

Maz - If you're asking for ideas about how SEAR could be misread from script? How about Gear and Scar? or Soar? I suppose a copperplate upper-case S could be read as a G, a J, an I, even a T. The vowels in lower case could be read as any of a, e & o, I imagine, apart from any other small rounded consonants such as c, r, s; there's a risk of the a looking like a u, as well. I'm trying to think back to the handwriting lessons at the primary school(s) (I went to five, as my parents moved around!) where they did copperplate/Marion Richardson. The biggest problem is that if anyone studied italic script then n, m, u, v, w & i can all look extremely similar - or, at least, it's difficult to know where the stokes should be split to distinguish the letters. I imagine you've tried using wildcards? - including the single-character wildcard, "?"? Christine

I had a Great Grandfatherx 2 given in the 1881 as born "Thadwaite". Spent hours looking for said Thadwaite, got back to look at actual image - it was "Shadwell"! I also had a great=great aunt living apparently on her own at the age of 7 as the lady above her in the listing was named as C Meirs - she was actually Charlotte Steers, the girls grannie! The other thing on census (not transcriptions) is that especially in London during the Ind. Rev. when so many country people had moved to the city, the census taker could not understand their accents and would just put the closest big city to their birthplace. This can confuse.

FLEGG ive found the same family transcribed as Flagg Fligg and Flogg Anna :-)

Tocqueville transcribed as Longueville (ancestry) Macaree transcribed as Marsee and Macrae (1901) Cannot find my Shackletons on 1881 at all. Any ideas?