Wow Ron, I can't count the times I've read a transcription where the names of the children were typed in as (ex.) Jefse, Clarifsa, Melifsa....it is probably the only pet peeve I have as far as genealogy. I personally think that a short course in old English cursive styles couldn't hurt. Okay, I have another pet peeve, I found a Mabry living in the same household as some Magbys I was checking out, or I found a family of Magbys living with a Mabry. Whataya think? If I were a transcriber, I would at least put a little note in that states I wasn't sure but it looked more like Mabry even though the rest of the family was Magby. A transcriber did that with a Hanes group I was looking into. Stated on the transcription that Hanes could be Harris and in the Harris family stated that it could be Hanes. I really appreciated it to say the least. I prefer already transcribed copies too. I use the "edit", "find..." feature to check out other surnames I'm looking for. It doesn't work on pictures of census images, but does for text. Ali From: Ron McCandless <ronmcctx@texas.net> I too used to copy the page before and the page after but I did it to compare other names in my list with the names on the three pages. Now that so much of the census images are online I just go there (Ancestry costs and I'm a subscriber BUT SK makes their images for 1860 available to Roots for every county they finish). Trick is... I search every name there from page to page to make certain I don't miss anything. I keep notes to be certain I know exactly what I've read and what I haven't. NOTE: Don't trust the indexes from AIS, I've found lots they missed or didn't transcribe correctly because they didn't know what the Double S looked like in old script. If I look for myself I have no one to blame if I mess up and miss someone. If I had to go to the library and do this on Microfilm it wouldn't be feasible for me but this way is great. Ron _________________________________________________________________ Join the worlds largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com
I don't want to be misunderstood. Most folks do like the transcribed copies but if I'd used them I'd have missed a bunch of my lines. That is why I got name by name, line by line on every district in the county. I make the decision, not someone that was hired to do a job and gets paid by the hour with no interest in the accuracy of what they write down. I'm not ever certain of what you end up with by the time you get through the enumerator who was either drunk, uneducated or totally incompetent and then the person who transcribed the data (see above). Nope, gonna do it myself from the microfilm or some other media that will display the original page. One more point, by looking at the pages themselves I found my GGGF and his siblings even though the name used was McColey instead of McCandless. Don't know if that was an error or what but five of seven children matched name and age down to middle names and initials. NEVER would have found that with a index. But it is whatever a researcher thinks is best for their own purpose. Not up to me. Now with all that said, I do use the indices to find new collateral families if they are there. If not, back to the hard way. Ron Alice Ingle wrote: > > Wow Ron, > > I can't count the times I've read a transcription where the names of the > children were typed in as (ex.) Jefse, Clarifsa, Melifsa....it is probably > the only pet peeve I have as far as genealogy. > > I personally think that a short course in old English cursive styles > couldn't hurt. > > Okay, I have another pet peeve, I found a Mabry living in the same household > as some Magbys I was checking out, or I found a family of Magbys living with > a Mabry. Whataya think? If I were a transcriber, I would at least put a > little note in that states I wasn't sure but it looked more like Mabry even > though the rest of the family was Magby. A transcriber did that with a > Hanes group I was looking into. Stated on the transcription that Hanes > could be Harris and in the Harris family stated that it could be Hanes. I > really appreciated it to say the least. > > I prefer already transcribed copies too. I use the "edit", "find..." > feature to check out other surnames I'm looking for. It doesn't work on > pictures of census images, but does for text. > > Ali > > From: Ron McCandless <ronmcctx@texas.net> > > I too used to copy the page before and the page after but I did it to > compare other names in my list with the names on the three pages. > > Now that so much of the census images are online I just go there > (Ancestry costs and I'm a subscriber BUT SK makes their images for 1860 > available to Roots for every county they finish). Trick is... I search > every name there from page to page to make certain I don't miss > anything. I keep notes to be certain I know exactly what I've read and > what I haven't. > > NOTE: Don't trust the indexes from AIS, I've found lots they missed or > didn't transcribe correctly because they didn't know what the Double S > looked like in old script. If I look for myself I have no one to blame > if I mess up and miss someone. > > If I had to go to the library and do this on Microfilm it wouldn't be > feasible for me but this way is great. > > Ron > > _________________________________________________________________ > Join the worlds largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. > http://www.hotmail.com > > ==== MCBEE Mailing List ==== > Don't forget our Message Board, courtesy of Rootsweb! Queries, Bible > records, Biographies, Deeds, Obits, Pensions, Wills and other data: > http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/board/rw/surnames.mcbee > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237