My sympathies are totally with the transcribers. In some instances the original handwriting makes your eyes want to fall out of your head. It would be less painful than rying to decode the intent of the original. Sharon Sharon Oddie Brown Roberts Creek, BC, Canada History Project: http://www.thesilverbowl.com/ Some Become Flowers: http://www.harbourpublishing.com/title/SomeBecomeFlowers Family Tree: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=silverbowl On 22/06/2010 10:30 AM, JackLangton@aol.com wrote: > I know that Carlow town had, and perhaps still has, hundreds of students > taking courses every year who come from many different countries. Just a > thought: would they perhaps have been asked to volunteer in transcribing the > various records? If so, these well-intentioned young people might have had a > hard time reading and analyzing the loops and the swoops, the unfamiliar > terms, and the myriad of posers that one runs into in even one page of > records. And even the Irish students might have had difficulties. > > Jack Langton > ======================================= > Before you post a message to the IRL-CARLOW mailing list you must subscribe to the List. Its FREE! > --------------------------------------- > To subscribe to the IRL-Carlow mailing list, send an email to IRL-CARLOW-request@rootsweb.com with the word "subscribe" (without the quotes) in the Subject box. No additional text is required. > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to IRL-CARLOW-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >

I agree - transcribers have a very difficult job and after working on some of the databases for FamilySearch.com, I can tell you that it isn't easy - even if the records are in your native tongue. Penmanship is probably the biggest problem but you have deterioration of paper records or poor imaging on film or deterioration of film that renders stuff next to impossible to decipher. Also, way back when, I don't think people were thinking about long term archiveability, so proper steps were not always taken to keep the records in readable shape. Also, they want you to work really hard not to infer intent but to transcribe. This allows people over time to interpret what was written and the written word is not lost to the ages - even if it might have an error within. When you are looking at records here in the US, you can add an inability to spell, or even a foreign person speaking to an English-speaking census taker and you have all sorts of ways that errors and miscommunications can be inserted into data. It can be mind numbing. I pity the poor folks looking at the US Census 72 years from now... While they will likely be able to read it, there was no real information in it at all - at least not the form I filled out. :-( Joann Taylor On 6/22/2010 12:49 PM, Sharon Oddie Brown wrote: > My sympathies are totally with the transcribers. In some instances the > original handwriting makes your eyes want to fall out of your head. It > would be less painful than rying to decode the intent of the original. > Sharon > Sharon Oddie Brown Roberts Creek, BC, Canada History Project: > http://www.thesilverbowl.com/ Some Become Flowers: > http://www.harbourpublishing.com/title/SomeBecomeFlowers Family Tree: > http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=silverbowl > > On 22/06/2010 10:30 AM, JackLangton@aol.com wrote: > >> I know that Carlow town had, and perhaps still has, hundreds of students >> taking courses every year who come from many different countries. Just a >> thought: would they perhaps have been asked to volunteer in transcribing the >> various records? If so, these well-intentioned young people might have had a >> hard time reading and analyzing the loops and the swoops, the unfamiliar >> terms, and the myriad of posers that one runs into in even one page of >> records. And even the Irish students might have had difficulties. >> >> Jack Langton >> ======================================= >> Before you post a message to the IRL-CARLOW mailing list you must subscribe to the List. Its FREE! >> --------------------------------------- >> To subscribe to the IRL-Carlow mailing list, send an email to IRL-CARLOW-request@rootsweb.com with the word "subscribe" (without the quotes) in the Subject box. No additional text is required. >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to IRL-CARLOW-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >> >> >> > ======================================= > Before you post a message to the IRL-CARLOW mailing list you must subscribe to the List. Its FREE! > --------------------------------------- > To subscribe to the IRL-Carlow mailing list, send an email to IRL-CARLOW-request@rootsweb.com with the word "subscribe" (without the quotes) in the Subject box. No additional text is required. > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to IRL-CARLOW-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > >