Author Topic: The worst Ancestry transcription ever?  (Read 86853 times)

Offline Maiden Stone

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Re: The worst Ancestry transcription ever?
« Reply #216 on: Monday 26 July 21 19:05 BST (UK) »
One man gave "Kent, Maderlane" as his place of birth.



There were exceptions. One of my ancestors, known as Bella Bullough, has her first name "corrected" in 1841 to "Isabella". She was actually "Arabella". In 1851 her first name is down as "Bellow", though I don't know how loud her voice was.  ;D

Our main beef is with those modern transcribers,

Appropriate transcription since a bull bellows.  ;D
Your post is heavy with bovine references!  ;D
The name of Bullough family in my neighbourhood was pronounced "Bulla".
Cowban

Offline andrewalston

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Re: The worst Ancestry transcription ever?
« Reply #217 on: Monday 26 July 21 23:44 BST (UK) »
The name of Bullough family in my neighbourhood was pronounced "Bulla".

Yes, that's the usual pronunciation.

My lot were from the Westhoughton area, and the name seems to be most common there. One of the Bulloughs from Westhoughton, though I've not sorted out the link to mine, set up making mill machinery in Accrington, and bought the island of Rhum with the profits.

Dudley Pearson Bullough, the second owner of my car, came from Atherton; that branch made their money from making nuts and bolts.

Another one built up a chain of electrical retailers in the days when people rented TVs. Later they were taken over by Rumbelows - apparently an East Anglia surname, with only a single L, so nothing to do with Bella !
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.

Census information is Crown Copyright. See www.nationalarchives.gov.uk for details.

Online coombs

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Re: The worst Ancestry transcription ever?
« Reply #218 on: Tuesday 27 July 21 00:00 BST (UK) »
Middle Gagginge sounds like Middle Gussage, a parish near the Hampshire border of Dorset.

I still laugh at 1871 Liverpool resident Priscilla Snell of Brize Norton being transcribed as Pernella E Smell, born Phedge Naton, Oxfordshire.

The original does read Priscilla E Snell, born Pledge Naton, so similar to the transcription. I think the enumerator heard of Oxfordshire but probably not Brize Norton.
Researching:

LONDON, Coombs, Roberts, Auber, Helsdon, Fradine, Morin, Goodacre
DORSET Coombs, Munday
NORFOLK Helsdon, Riches, Harbord, Budery
KENT Roberts, Goodacre
SUSSEX Walder, Boniface, Dinnage, Standen, Lee, Botten, Wickham, Jupp
SUFFOLK Titshall, Frost, Fairweather, Mayhew, Archer, Eade, Scarfe
DURHAM Stewart, Musgrave, Wilson, Forster
SCOTLAND Stewart in Selkirk
USA Musgrave, Saix
ESSEX Cornwell, Stock, Quilter, Lawrence, Whale, Clift
OXON Edgington, Smith, Inkpen, Snell, Batten, Brain

Offline Ackotastic

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Re: The worst Ancestry transcription ever?
« Reply #219 on: Sunday 08 August 21 17:27 BST (UK) »
One day soon they will get computers to perform transcribing.  They will probably be more accurate than human transcribers.

They've been trying for a long time with OCR, and that can only handle printed characters with any reasonable hope of success.  Attempts at blurry Victorian newspapers are a joke sometimes, so I don't share your optimism - yet.

Im not sure they still do this, but Royal mail used to employ staff to do data entry for letters that couldnt be recognized by the system in place.

So a member of staff would sit there, get a letter onscreen, type out parts of the address that the system was failing to understand and then hit return. on Special occasions we would get a red box to draw around the address if the system couldnt detect the location of the address.

it was that tedious, I once fell asleep and woke up when i headbutted the monitor


Online coombs

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Re: The worst Ancestry transcription ever?
« Reply #220 on: Monday 16 August 21 22:26 BST (UK) »
I have even come across some obscene transcriptions on Ancestry before.

But imagine how mis-transcribed names like Kerrenhappuch and Marmaduke will be, or surnames like Smurthwaite, Bassinsgthwaighte or Bracegirdle will be.
Researching:

LONDON, Coombs, Roberts, Auber, Helsdon, Fradine, Morin, Goodacre
DORSET Coombs, Munday
NORFOLK Helsdon, Riches, Harbord, Budery
KENT Roberts, Goodacre
SUSSEX Walder, Boniface, Dinnage, Standen, Lee, Botten, Wickham, Jupp
SUFFOLK Titshall, Frost, Fairweather, Mayhew, Archer, Eade, Scarfe
DURHAM Stewart, Musgrave, Wilson, Forster
SCOTLAND Stewart in Selkirk
USA Musgrave, Saix
ESSEX Cornwell, Stock, Quilter, Lawrence, Whale, Clift
OXON Edgington, Smith, Inkpen, Snell, Batten, Brain

Offline andrewalston

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Re: The worst Ancestry transcription ever?
« Reply #221 on: Tuesday 17 August 21 07:56 BST (UK) »
Names have always been mis-spelled and mis-transcribed. That's how many surname variants appear.

When someone says their name "has always been spelled like that", you already know you will find otherwise.

In my One Name Study, a there's a gravestone for:
  William Dunbabin... Also Martha his Wife.... Also John Dunbavand Son of the above

William Shakespeare's will, presumably written by someone who was literate, has his surname spelled three different ways.  ;D
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.

Census information is Crown Copyright. See www.nationalarchives.gov.uk for details.

Offline jbml

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Re: The worst Ancestry transcription ever?
« Reply #222 on: Wednesday 11 January 23 21:32 GMT (UK) »
 Having been a lawyer's clerk myself, in my [much] younger days ... it wouldn't surprise me if the clerk who prepared teh engrossment of the Bard's will was deliberately trying to see how many different spellings he could get away with without anyone noticing ... it can be a tediously dull calling, and you have to find your amusements where you can.
All identified names up to and including my great x5 grandparents: Abbot Andrews Baker Blenc(h)ow Brothers Burrows Chambers Clifton Cornwell Escott Fisher Foster Frost Giddins Groom Hardwick Harris Hart Hayho(e) Herman Holcomb(e) Holmes Hurley King-Spooner Martindale Mason Mitchell Murphy Neves Oakey Packman Palmer Peabody Pearce Pettit(t) Piper Pottenger Pound Purkis Rackliff(e) Richardson Scotford Sherman Sinden Snear Southam Spooner Stephenson Varing Weatherley Webb Whitney Wiles Wright

Offline Drayke

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Re: The worst Ancestry transcription ever?
« Reply #223 on: Thursday 19 January 23 10:44 GMT (UK) »
Came across this interesting translation the other day on Ancestry. Was looking for Edward Lloyd who married Ursula Salusbury in 1630. The transcriber somehow thought 'Ursley Sallsberye' looked like 'Custoy Sal'.

Makes her sound like some exotic dessert that Edward married.

You would think that these transcribers when the write their transcriptions would think "is that really a name?" and look it up.

Offline jbml

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Re: The worst Ancestry transcription ever?
« Reply #224 on: Friday 20 January 23 07:39 GMT (UK) »
Makes her sound like some exotic dessert that Edward married.

You would think that these transcribers when the write their transcriptions would think "is that really a name?" and look it up.

I'm sure she WAS very sweet ...

But transcribers have to transcribe what is ACTUALLY seen to be there, and not correct it to what they might know (or suspect) it OUGHT to be.

And therein lies the rub ... "seen to be". With some of the more, shall we say, exotic manuscripts, different people can see different things. A bit like those ink blot pictures, where you see a butterfly and I see the Isle of Mull ...
All identified names up to and including my great x5 grandparents: Abbot Andrews Baker Blenc(h)ow Brothers Burrows Chambers Clifton Cornwell Escott Fisher Foster Frost Giddins Groom Hardwick Harris Hart Hayho(e) Herman Holcomb(e) Holmes Hurley King-Spooner Martindale Mason Mitchell Murphy Neves Oakey Packman Palmer Peabody Pearce Pettit(t) Piper Pottenger Pound Purkis Rackliff(e) Richardson Scotford Sherman Sinden Snear Southam Spooner Stephenson Varing Weatherley Webb Whitney Wiles Wright