*UPDATE* Ancestry - weird place names - the penny drops !

[Cathymjp]

I spent two years searching for a 3 gt grandfather in 1861 andc 1871 but could not find him at all.  Cound find his son and grandson of the same name, but not him.  Eventually I discovered that my Arblaster had been transcribed as Sollander.  Having looked at the original entry on the census it was not very clear.  It has made me wonder how many more of missing ancestors are there to be found under their unusual name.

Cathy 

[stanmapstone]

To date I have found 15 transcribed versions of Mapstone, ranging from Stone to Mapelvue, Mapslone, Hapstone, and Ma...stone 

Stan

[Nick29]

Going off-topic ever so slightly, does anyone know how American censuses were transcribed ? 

I'm convinced that many were read by machines, because of the elemental errors that I've found in them, like an obvious boy's name incorrectly transcribed as a girl, just because the "M" couldn't be read properly.

[stanmapstone]

The punch card system was developed by Herman Hollerith in the USA, who estimated that to process the United States 1890 Census by hand would take 20 years, and the next census was due in 1900! The system stemmed directly from the Jacquard loom and the machines were an outstanding success.

The system was used in the UK 1911 Census
Stan

[Nick29]

Thanks for that ! 

[peterbmillzz]

I have had most of the problems here over the time.  There is an old computing Acronym - GIGO - Garbage in - Garbage out.  The problem with the place name drop down menus is that if you don't read and select the correct one (I now ignore them) your mistake when offered to another member as a hint carries "Kingston - Jamaica" and not "Kingston - Surrey" with it.  Ignore the drop downs and just type in the place you know is correct.
Peter