Genealogy Chat

Has anyone come across spellimg mistakes on the 1901 census as I am looking to see where my Gt Grandma was, she was born in Cleasby,yorks and the one that fits on the census is born in CLERICY,YORKS Also does anyone know what a General Hanker was as an occupation Ann,Darlington DUR

You will find plenty of mistakes on the 1901 census, spelling, ages etc. I found my Grandad on there eventually, with all his family. He was 3 years old, but on the census transcription he was listed as 38!! When I paid to print the census sheet out, it was written as 8, crossed out and re-written as 3!

You have probably got the right one. My GGfather was down as Fergerson, not Ferguson. I suspect a hanker should read hawker. John

Well there are lots of errors in the on-line version, because it is a transcript by people who didnt have much knowlege of what they were doing. Their work was not checked properly so they have introduced errors which are not there in the original. You may well not be able to locate people using the search facility even if they were entered `correctly' by the enumerators. There will also be variations in the actual manuscript return because not all the enumerators could spell, and maybe your ancesters were not as fussy about how names and places were spelt as we are now. You just have to keep an open mind, do flexible searches using the first couple of letters and a wild card, and keep a note of the possibles and improbables as well as the ones which definitly correspond to what you are looking for. Is there actually a place called Clericy in Yorks? It is probably worth a check with an on-line gazetteer.

Ann I have to say this, we ALL make SPELLIMG mistakes (they call them typing errors these days). Your own message is a classic example! Hope this doesn't offend you, it is not meant to. Lynne Sale CHS

This is why I'd recommend ignoring the transcription and just download the image instead. It may be that the error extends to the original however you won't know until you look. I think the image for 75p represents much better value than the transcription for £1? Plus it may turn out more useful in the long term. For example I discovered by looking at the image that a daughter of a family was living next door under a married name, I recognised her because she had distinctive forenames and place of birth. I would never have made this discovery with the transcription.

I have to proof read my messages because my Keyboard is diabolical at spelling. Perhaps cos IBM are American. Jim

Ann, I have just done a quick search on GENUKI for Clericy, which produced no results, and Cleasby, which produced lots, so it is fairly safe to assume that if it exists now it didnt in 1901. Pam

Thank you all for your reply's. Yes Lynne my spelling, or not hitting the keyboard does leave a lot to be desired (being a silver surfer you know) Pamela thanks for looking it up I had done so and nothing came up.What do you mean by a wild card -- this terminology is still quite new but you are never to old to learn. Ann, Darlington DUR

Ann, there is a facility on the census search for looking for names with variable spelling, where you just put the first two or three letters, eg if it could be Grey or Gray you could put Gr and a symbol which the search engine acepts as either option. I cant remember exactly what symbol you need to put,ewither a ? or *. Someone at FRC showed me, but there will be an explanation on the census site of how to do it, I think it is under the advanced search option. Best of luck

Ann and Jim When my typing is bad, I use the excuse that I have dyslexic fingers!! Lynne Sale CHS