As a light diversion, I have just been looking for a Fenwick who married into my family, and in the 1861 Census came across Sarah Ann Fenwick, born in Western Sahara, Durham (according to Ancestry.com). I always suspected Durham was a cultural desert. A quick look at RG9, Piece 3745, Folio 57, Page 16 shows that the entry actually shows her birthplace as two ditto signs under the previous entry, so it actually says she was born in Esh, Durham. How's that for an imaginative transcription, even by Ancestry's standards? Adrian

------------------------------ These transcription errors usually come about from the use of drop-down lists by the transcribers. They type in the first few letters and the list 'suggests' a possible place name which is very easy for the transcriber to select. ESH is the three letter country code for Western Sahara, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-3 Stan Mapstone On 27 July 2010 14:46, <ADRABBOTT@aol.com> wrote: > As a light diversion, I have just been looking for a Fenwick who married > into my family, and in the 1861 Census came across Sarah Ann Fenwick, born > in Western Sahara, Durham (according to Ancestry.com). I always suspected > Durham was a cultural desert. > > A quick look at RG9, Piece 3745, Folio 57, Page 16 shows that the entry > actually shows her birthplace as two ditto signs under the previous entry, > so it actually says she was born in Esh, Durham. How's that for an > imaginative transcription, even by Ancestry's standards? > > Adrian > ==== DUR-NBL Mailing List ==== > To Post a message to this list send it to, > DUR-NBL-L@rootsweb.com > > ==== DUR-NBL Mailing List ==== > List Web Page > http://www.communigate.co.uk/ne/durhamgenealogy/index.phtml > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > DUR-NBL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >