Hi both,   Regards spelling and pronounciation of names. I still have great problems with the spelling of Teviotdale. People I work with dont always call me Teviotdale, more often than not its Tevendale, or Tividale or whatever. These people have seen my surname written down. Doctors, Dentists and their receptionists fail to get their tongues around  my name,and for the poor call centre people, there is no chance. I just say that there is no one with that surname living here. It doesn't seem to be just a problem in days gone by.   Euan.   From: Nivard Ovington <ovington1@sky.com> To: angus@rootsweb.com Sent: Thursday, 29 November 2012, 10:59 Subject: Re: [ANGUS] Prisoners Hi Gavin With great respect you appear to be reading things into my post that I did not put I did not at any point say it was the enumerator who was mainly at fault What I said and stand by is that the more common names are more likely to be recorded or transcribed correctly than the more unusual names (by anyone, enumerator, volunteer or paid transcriber etc) We find similar problems problems with any form of record, birth, marriage, baptism etc etc There are various stages along the way from start to finish, an error can creep in at any point, that can be by the most fastidious of transcribers or recorders, they are human and make mistakes, I have done so many times without realising it Although transcribers should always transcribe what they see, one person will see one thing and another a different word or words Yes there are other transcripts but only Ancestry have a decent search engine which enables all manner of search techniques, which to some degree negate the poor quality of transcription My advice would be to use any transcription that is available but to always obtain the original page image if at all possible No transcript is without flaws, but at least with Ancestry you have a passing chance of finding people or places You also do not need a 2nd mortgage to use it as most libraries and the LDS have it if you can't afford it at home Scotlandspeople may be reasonably cost effective but it quickly mounts up, using Ancestry it can make your search on SP more targeted and therefore cheaper Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) > I don't believe a name like TEVIOTDALE would commonly be mistranscribed > by the Census Enumerator - as a surname, it is not particularly > widespread, but it is also the name of a river valley in the Scottish > Borders, and figures in Sir Walter Scott's pseudo-Jacobite song "Blue > Bonnets Ower the Border", so is likely to have been perfectly familiar > to an averagely-educated Scot of the mid-19th century. > > What is far more likely is that the name was mistranscribed at a much > later stage (ie within the last few years) by someone entirely > unfamiliar with Scottish names and 19th-century handwriting. Ancestry > are rumoured to have had their Census transcriptions done in India, > where data entry charges may be lower, but where familiarity with > Scottish personal and place names cannot necessarily be guaranteed. > > But Ancestry's is not the only transcription available.  Scotland's > People transcriptions are generally more reliable, and Tay Valley Family > History Society sell Census indexes for the counties of Angus, Perth, > Kinross and Fife, and these will have been produced by people native to > the area, who will be familiar with the names likely to be encountered. > > > Gavin Bell ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ANGUS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message