Author Topic: 1901 Leftovers: Should we correct transcription errors ??  (Read 111756 times)

Offline MaryA

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 9,309
  • St Chads, Kirkby
    • View Profile
Re: Done <--> Not Done
« Reply #9 on: Thursday 27 October 05 21:50 BST (UK) »
In Mary's case, I have her birth certificate confirming "Arlecdon Hill" as her birthplace in 1876.  And I've compared the data from all available censuses to make sure I'm looking at the same family each time.  The 1901 census was actually the easiest as I had documents from that period (my great-grandparents marriage for example).

But this is information that you have found over 100 years later, that you BELIEVE is her.  You may be 99.999 percent sure that it's her, but what if it wasn't .......

The information on the census return is what she herself gave to the enumerator, he wrote it down and this is what you see on the page and you read.  A transcription should be an exact copy only typed of what was on the page.  Its not for you to change it years later.  A change of any sort makes a nonsense of a census entry.   If you make a change you create something that wasn't there at the time that page was written, it means you are making up history to suit yourself.

This is the reason that sites such as FreeBMD and others have the "Type what you see" rule.

Mary
Census Information is Crown Copyright, from The National Archives <br />Lunt (Wavertree/West Derby), Forshaw (West Derby), Richardson (Knowsley), Kent (Cheshire), <br />Cain (Hertfordshire, London), Larkins (Bedfordshire, London), Nunn (London), Lenton, Hillyard (Bedfordshire), <br />Parle, Lambert, Furlong, Wafer (Wexford)<br />Special separate interest in Longford (Blackrock, Dublin)

Offline ozchook

  • RootsChat Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 182
    • View Profile
Re: Should we correct transcription errors ??
« Reply #10 on: Wednesday 09 November 05 00:30 GMT (UK) »
Claremcg, 10,000 names! - you deserve a medal, or free chiropractic for the rest of your life. Irene

Offline Claremcg

  • RootsChat Extra
  • **
  • Posts: 19
  • -
    • View Profile
Re: Should we correct transcription errors ??
« Reply #11 on: Wednesday 09 November 05 08:22 GMT (UK) »
[quote ]
Claremcg, 10,000 names! - you deserve a medal, or free chiropractic for the rest of your life. Irene
Quote

Hi Irene

Thanks for that kind thought..... will ask my chiropracter and see what she thinks! <vbg>

And, actually, that was at the time of the changeover; there's a whole load more waiting to be sent up when I catch up with things.

Claremcg
Coates - Swaledale, Dubuque, IOWA 1860's.
Hillary,Metcalfe,Peacock,Alderson,Guy,Siddle,Garthwaite,Swaledale, N R Yorkshire.
Wood,Brearley,Townend,Lawford,Roberts,Liley,Hirst,Clayton,Fawcett,Broadley,Thornton -Liversedge and Hartshead area W R Yorkshire.
Richardson - Durham c 1540-Airedale,Midgley,Currer,Ferrand,Busfeild,Cordingley,Pratt,Walker,
Jenkins,Williams,Clay,Greenish (Grinnis/Grinnish),Didwith,Haine,Perkin,Davies,Pembs & Dorset

Offline Berlin-Bob

  • Moderator
  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • ********
  • Posts: 7,443
    • View Profile
Re: Should we correct transcription errors ??
« Reply #12 on: Sunday 27 November 05 08:36 GMT (UK) »
Quote from: Claremcq
Type What You See, and NOT what you think you know. If you cannot read it, you leave a space.

Having re-read this thread, I now agree with Clare, but I'll also accept one or more ? for a space.

One point, however:

If the Enumerator wrote  Do. or do or " for ditto, then please fill in with the full details.

The reason for this is simple - when you see the names on an image, then you know what the ditto refers to. But if you are searching by name, and you don't have the previous entry in your search results, then you have no idea what the ditto refers to  :(

So to help others, this is one place where you fill in what the Enumerator meant, and not what he wrote !!

Bob
Any UK Census Data included in this post is Crown Copyright (see: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk)


Offline Claremcg

  • RootsChat Extra
  • **
  • Posts: 19
  • -
    • View Profile
Re: Should we correct transcription errors ??
« Reply #13 on: Sunday 27 November 05 09:00 GMT (UK) »
Hi Bob

Yes, you are quite right, and yes, I did do that when transcribing all those pages for Trudy, so you won't find any 'do's' or 'ditto's' in mine....

You get so used to doing it that you don't automatically think that others don't know what you know! So sorry, I should have said about how to deal with them.

Best wishes

Claremcg

Quote from: Claremcq
Type What You See, and NOT what you think you know. If you cannot read it, you leave a space.

Having re-read this thread, I now agree with Clare, but I'll also accept one or more ? for a space.

One point, however:

If the Enumerator wrote  Do. or do or " for ditto, then please fill in with the full details.

The reason for this is simple - when you see the names on an image, then you know what the ditto refers to. But if you are searching by name, and you don't have the previous entry in your search results, then you have no idea what the ditto refers to  :(

So to help others, this is one place where you fill in what the Enumerator meant, and not what he wrote !!

Bob
Coates - Swaledale, Dubuque, IOWA 1860's.
Hillary,Metcalfe,Peacock,Alderson,Guy,Siddle,Garthwaite,Swaledale, N R Yorkshire.
Wood,Brearley,Townend,Lawford,Roberts,Liley,Hirst,Clayton,Fawcett,Broadley,Thornton -Liversedge and Hartshead area W R Yorkshire.
Richardson - Durham c 1540-Airedale,Midgley,Currer,Ferrand,Busfeild,Cordingley,Pratt,Walker,
Jenkins,Williams,Clay,Greenish (Grinnis/Grinnish),Didwith,Haine,Perkin,Davies,Pembs & Dorset

Offline Mackiwi

  • RootsChat Veteran
  • *****
  • Posts: 909
  • Per Ardua
    • View Profile
Re: Should we correct transcription errors ??
« Reply #14 on: Monday 17 April 06 03:55 BST (UK) »
What if, all the details for a rellie are correct but the place of birth is on the next line down ? ???

Mackiwi
MCINTYRE, TAYLOR, DUNCAN Skipness & NTHKnapdale
CAMPBELL,MCKINNON,MCDONALD ,Isle of Coll
MCINTYRE,CAMPBELL, Isle of Bute
MCMILLAN Rutherglen, Scotland
PERRIN, STEPHENS,PAYNE,FEAKINS,PREECE,DUDSON, Endland, Australia & New Zealand
BASON, Potterspury, England
MASON Potterspury England
HENSON, Potterspury England & New Zealand
WYBROW, England, Australia & New Zealand
WHITE Sri Lanka & new Zealand
TRAILL, America & New Zealand
MACGREGOR, LOCKHART, STEPHENSON,MCKELVIE, Scotland

Offline Claremcg

  • RootsChat Extra
  • **
  • Posts: 19
  • -
    • View Profile
Re: Should we correct transcription errors ??
« Reply #15 on: Monday 17 April 06 09:20 BST (UK) »
What if, all the details for a rellie are correct but the place of birth is on the next line down ? ???

Mackiwi

Hi

Yes, very annoying, but you still cannot alter it. I found one of my husband's possible rellies, listed as head of household and aged 14. Not impossible, you might say, but he was living with his mistress, it says he was married and he's a brewer's carter. He has a son aged 5 and a daughter aged 2. Now that is very precocious!
The enumerator SHOULD have written age '41' but I TWYS just the same, even though I knew it to be incorrect.

If you alter what you see and YOU know your family information to be correct how, then, will the rest of us know that what we see is the original information of that page?

We could all do it, as we type out the page, putting in that bit of info that we know but which is not what the enumerator put. WE might be getting that bit of info wrong as well!   :(  Could be very misleading. So if you TWYS then its no-one's error but the original enumerator's.

Transcription errors, well... IF they are genuinely wrong, there must be some way of contacting the 1901 Leftovers site and asking for it to be corrected. On FreeBMD they allow a search of that particular page which the entry is on (the pair of spectacles you see beside the entry) and if you see something the volunteer missed, then you can put in a corrected entry notice, the website then contact the volunteer who then changes it and it is corrected on the website. I think I've done about 4 corrections in 18 months.
But they do ask for proof of where you saw the original entry.

Hope this helps a bit.

Best wishes

Claremcg
Coates - Swaledale, Dubuque, IOWA 1860's.
Hillary,Metcalfe,Peacock,Alderson,Guy,Siddle,Garthwaite,Swaledale, N R Yorkshire.
Wood,Brearley,Townend,Lawford,Roberts,Liley,Hirst,Clayton,Fawcett,Broadley,Thornton -Liversedge and Hartshead area W R Yorkshire.
Richardson - Durham c 1540-Airedale,Midgley,Currer,Ferrand,Busfeild,Cordingley,Pratt,Walker,
Jenkins,Williams,Clay,Greenish (Grinnis/Grinnish),Didwith,Haine,Perkin,Davies,Pembs & Dorset

Offline Mackiwi

  • RootsChat Veteran
  • *****
  • Posts: 909
  • Per Ardua
    • View Profile
Re: Should we correct transcription errors ??
« Reply #16 on: Tuesday 18 April 06 09:26 BST (UK) »
Hi Claremcg

Thank you for that, it was the 1891 census and perhaps I will leave it and just add a note in my tree for future generations to decide what they think. I had checked everyone of that name and it was the only one that had the right birth place.

Mackiwi :)
MCINTYRE, TAYLOR, DUNCAN Skipness & NTHKnapdale
CAMPBELL,MCKINNON,MCDONALD ,Isle of Coll
MCINTYRE,CAMPBELL, Isle of Bute
MCMILLAN Rutherglen, Scotland
PERRIN, STEPHENS,PAYNE,FEAKINS,PREECE,DUDSON, Endland, Australia & New Zealand
BASON, Potterspury, England
MASON Potterspury England
HENSON, Potterspury England & New Zealand
WYBROW, England, Australia & New Zealand
WHITE Sri Lanka & new Zealand
TRAILL, America & New Zealand
MACGREGOR, LOCKHART, STEPHENSON,MCKELVIE, Scotland

Offline stewartgenes

  • I am sorry but my email address is no longer working
  • RootsChat Extra
  • **
  • Posts: 4
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: Should we correct transcription errors ??
« Reply #17 on: Sunday 30 April 06 10:07 BST (UK) »
One ancestor that I found had been indexed wrong, I only found it was the correct one by a bit of lateral thinking and checking the other members I knew for sure would be with him, then I paid for the image which was correct. Transcription errors are bound to happen. Maybe the original errors could be left in but highlighted in some way and a note added by the person submitting the information. My reasoning is there will be generations coming after us and it may help them to know. Does that make sense? :-\
William Stewart 1774-1847 Ldn & Middx d.Kensal Green
Mary Ann Stewart 1796- 1867 maiden name possibly Leishman. Marriage not found.
William George Stewart born 1818 Chelsea d.1881
John Stewart
Jean Leishman Stewart
Horatio Stewart
Alfred Stewart
Eliza Baldwin
Phoebe Harriet Dallinger
Frederick Priest
Margaret Stewart Priest
William Horatio Stewart b.1871 Walton d.1906 Balham
William Stewart b.1894 Balham
Dietz
Mildenhall
Kirchin
Terry
Raymond
Haddock
Silverton
King
Walker