Author Topic: The worst Ancestry transcription ever?  (Read 88696 times)

Offline majm

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Re: The worst Ancestry transcription ever?
« Reply #36 on: Friday 17 June 16 01:32 BST (UK) »
Starts with "S", ends with "ton" and is nine letters long, so that is an 'e' before the 'ton'

S - - - - eton

Agh .... that's an 'l' before the 'e'

S - - -leton

Agh and that's an 'ing' after the S

If pressed to transcribe I would actually decline and set it aside and have a team effort.

But after some considerations over several days of leaving the print of the image on my desk, I have come to the conclusion that the surname "Singleton" is a better transcription than Laylutore.

I suppose a fair way to check would be to seek out a likely civil registration,  either via http://www.lancashirebmd.org.uk/births.php or https://www.freebmd.org.uk/

Postage rates in Australia are on the increase, and no postcards handy.

NO, I am probably wrong.  Here is the familysearch index (from December 2014) for Thomas Henry SINGLETON's baptism
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JQCD-YR2

JM



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Offline andrewalston

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Re: The worst Ancestry transcription ever?
« Reply #37 on: Friday 17 June 16 05:10 BST (UK) »
If this was the first entry being transcribed in a session, then maybe I might have made the same mistake.
However, if I'd done a couple of pages in the same handwriting, Singleton would be the choice.
Even with the small sample we have, the capital S is a decent match for the one on the end of the street name, there is a dot (some distance) above the I, the vowel just before the -ton is a decent match for the one in Russel (though it also matches the u !).
Looking at ALSTON in south Ribble area, ALSTEAD and DONBAVAND/DUNBABIN etc. everywhere, HOWCROFT and MARSH in Bolton and Westhoughton, PICKERING in the Whitehaven area.

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Offline Andrew Tarr

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Re: The worst Ancestry transcription ever?
« Reply #38 on: Friday 17 June 16 09:15 BST (UK) »
Well done.  I have the advantage of seeing many pages in this cleric's handwriting, and to me Singleton is pretty clear.  He had the annoying habit of using two forms of 'e', the common one and the 'Greek epsilon' of which there are three examples here.  That alone should help to identify the name (which is confirmed on FreeBMD), along with the capital S.  That is why the Laylutore is so awful - the transcriber seems to have made no attempt to deduce anything.
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Offline anne_p

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Re: The worst Ancestry transcription ever?
« Reply #39 on: Friday 17 June 16 09:22 BST (UK) »
One of my families are found on the 1911 census in Montreal.
The original in quite clear yet every one of the 4 people in the household have their place of birth mistranscribed.
New Zealand transcribed as New Ireland
England transcribed as Ireland
Scotland/Ecosse transcribed as Nova Scotia


Online Mowsehowse

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Re: The worst Ancestry transcription ever?
« Reply #40 on: Friday 17 June 16 09:45 BST (UK) »
Here's one I turned up today, indexed by FamilySearch as LAYLUTORE.  The correct surname is pretty clear to me, but it's also clear that no amount of soundex or look-alike would ever find it in the index.  Answers on a postcard please ....

Slightly tongue in cheek, as I have now read entire thread but.....

After I had read the thread that far, I sat with my husband to mull over this conundrum.

We laid out the EIGHT letters, hangman style, and filled in the more obvious before cudgelling our brains over the others.

_ _ ybilo _ 

Definitely a dot above supposed i.
Definitely no crossing of upstroke, so decided L not T.
Last letter could easily be w,n,m.

Eventually concluded "Swybilow" or perhaps Swybilom or Swybilon.  :P

But "never in a million years" Singleton!!!!!!!!  :-[
BORCHARDT in Poland/Germany, BOSKOWITZ in Czechoslovakia, Hungary + Austria, BUSS in Baden, Germany + Switzerland, FEKETE in Hungary + Austria, GOTTHILF in Hammerstein + Berlin, GUBLER, GYSI, LABHARDT & RYCHNER in Switzerland, KONIG & KRONER in Germany, PLACZEK, WUNSCH & SILBERBERG in Poland.

Also: ROWSE in Brixham, Tenby, Hull & Ramsgate. Strongman, in Falmouth. Champion. Coke. Eame/s. Gibbons. Passmore. Pulsever. Sparkes in Brixham & Ramsgate. Toms in Cornwall. Waymoth. Wyatt.

Online carol8353

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Re: The worst Ancestry transcription ever?
« Reply #41 on: Friday 17 June 16 11:47 BST (UK) »
No way would I have said that started with an S,to me it read as LUYLULOW  ;D
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Offline majm

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Re: The worst Ancestry transcription ever?
« Reply #42 on: Friday 17 June 16 12:30 BST (UK) »
The S is similar to the S after the word Russell as in 26 Russell S(treet.)   :)

There is a stroke as though to cross the t to the left of the t.   

Transcribing is usually a relaxing time, but sometimes it needs a load of time to come together.  When the tricky word starts to appear it will fully reveal itself in a rush.  But, yes, having the benefit of pages of the one hand, and knowing the particular archive resource being transcribed is a significant benefit.

I am not familiar with the clergy's hand, but I am familiar with transcribing parish registers from the mid 1800s that are extant the New South Wales Anglican archives, so you get used to reading a particular person's handwriting.   I am sure Andrew would have similar experiences with the UK ones.

JM
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Offline Andrew Tarr

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Re: The worst Ancestry transcription ever?
« Reply #43 on: Friday 17 June 16 12:44 BST (UK) »
Definitely no crossing of upstroke, so decided L not T.
Last letter could easily be w,n,m.

Eventually concluded "Swybilow" or perhaps Swybilom or Swybilon.  :P

But "never in a million years" Singleton!!!!!!!!  :-[


Yes, Swybilow would look very like the name written here.  The clues are (a) the capital S in Russel S, (b) the 'epsilon' e and uncrossed t in Elizabeth (you will have interpreted that correctly ?  ;)) and the dot floating high above the i .

But as I said above, it helps a lot to have read dozens of other names from this chap (George Rudd).  Also it wasn't quite the first Singleton in the register ... :D
Tarr, Tydeman, Liversidge, Bartlett, Young

Online Mowsehowse

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Re: The worst Ancestry transcription ever?
« Reply #44 on: Friday 17 June 16 12:55 BST (UK) »
Yes, Swybilow would look very like the name written here.  The clues are (a) the capital S in Russel S, (b) the 'epsilon' e and uncrossed t in Elizabeth (you will have interpreted that correctly ?  ;)) and the dot floating high above the i .

But as I said above, it helps a lot to have read dozens of other names from this chap (George Rudd).  Also it wasn't quite the first Singleton in the register ... :D

Uncrossed T in Elizabeth, darn it..... yes ofcourse.... BUT look at the B in Elizabeth.....
BORCHARDT in Poland/Germany, BOSKOWITZ in Czechoslovakia, Hungary + Austria, BUSS in Baden, Germany + Switzerland, FEKETE in Hungary + Austria, GOTTHILF in Hammerstein + Berlin, GUBLER, GYSI, LABHARDT & RYCHNER in Switzerland, KONIG & KRONER in Germany, PLACZEK, WUNSCH & SILBERBERG in Poland.

Also: ROWSE in Brixham, Tenby, Hull & Ramsgate. Strongman, in Falmouth. Champion. Coke. Eame/s. Gibbons. Passmore. Pulsever. Sparkes in Brixham & Ramsgate. Toms in Cornwall. Waymoth. Wyatt.