> > Are these census errors and bad indexing in recent discussions > > coming from errors in the original enumerations? Or, are some or > > all being found only in incorrect transcriptions by ancestry.com? > > Important distinction. > > > > John H Ballard <jballard@dslextreme.com> > > <snip> > > We also have to remember that all the indexers have to work with is > microfilm - and a lot of that is not clearly legible. I sometimes > look at a bunch of dim chicken scratches and marvel that the > indexers got ANY of the letters right - and they had them all > correct! > > "Richard A. Pence" <richardpence@pipeline.com> As someone who has indexed a state census for just one county I want to say that at some point the indexer has to make a decision if it is a "P" or "B" or it would never be done. The hand writing on just the one county census ran the course from --shall we say ornate--to--unreadable scratches. I just had to say that. mglory@hutchtel.net