I could use some advice. I received an email from someone who browses the web site in family research. He found an ancestor (success) but he wanted to let me know that in both the 1900 and 1910 census, the surname is not spelled correctly and asked to get them corrected. Both of these files are in USGenWeb Archives - I link to them. I sent an email to the transcriber asking him if he could change it. The email bounced. I've run across this problem before and once tried to have one corrected with no success. It seems the census records that are out there, some in various places, from my experience, never get updated. Am I assuming correctly. Would anyone wish to suggest something here. The last thing I really want to do is to go back to this fella and say tough luck; no change possible. I do intend to respond to him; he deserves a response. But I am really struggling with what to say. Sincerely, Mike Emmons CC

MIke, First thing to determine is if this is transcription error or census taker error. If it is census taker error then the transcript should not be changed, if it is changed, it is no longer a transcript. If it is a transcription error then it should be corrected but archives policies are I believe rather tight on such matters. What you can do in either case is create a corrections or supplemental page on your county site that will address the correction but, in my opinion, you should still determine and be clear which type of error it is. Holly At 04:53 PM 7/12/2004 -0700, Mike Peterson wrote: >I could use some advice. I received an email from someone who browses the >web site in family research. He found an ancestor (success) but he wanted >to let me know that in both the 1900 and 1910 census, the surname is not >spelled correctly and asked to get them corrected. Both of these files are >in USGenWeb Archives - I link to them. I sent an email to the transcriber >asking him if he could change it. The email bounced. I've run across this >problem before and once tried to have one corrected with no success. It >seems the census records that are out there, some in various places, from >my experience, never get updated. Am I assuming correctly. Would anyone >wish to suggest something here. The last thing I really want to do is to >go back to this fella and say tough luck; no change possible. I do intend >to respond to him; he deserves a response. But I am really struggling with >what to say. >Sincerely, >Mike >Emmons CC

Thank you Holly ! It appears that one was a problem for the transcriber also as it had a couple ?? marks. The other I think perhaps it was the census taker. My plans now are to set up a supplemental page. Thanks again. Sincerely, Mike Emmons CC ----- Original Message ----- From: "Holly Timm" <htimm@comcast.net> To: <NDGENWEB-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, July 12, 2004 7:20 PM Subject: Re: [NDGENWEB-L] Census Changes > > MIke, > > First thing to determine is if this is transcription error or census taker > error. > > If it is census taker error then the transcript should not be changed, if > it is changed, it is no longer a transcript. If it is a transcription error > then it should be corrected but archives policies are I believe rather > tight on such matters. > > What you can do in either case is create a corrections or supplemental page > on your county site that will address the correction but, in my opinion, > you should still determine and be clear which type of error it is. > > Holly > > > At 04:53 PM 7/12/2004 -0700, Mike Peterson wrote: > >I could use some advice. I received an email from someone who browses the > >web site in family research. He found an ancestor (success) but he wanted > >to let me know that in both the 1900 and 1910 census, the surname is not > >spelled correctly and asked to get them corrected. Both of these files are > >in USGenWeb Archives - I link to them. I sent an email to the transcriber > >asking him if he could change it. The email bounced. I've run across this > >problem before and once tried to have one corrected with no success. It > >seems the census records that are out there, some in various places, from > >my experience, never get updated. Am I assuming correctly. Would anyone > >wish to suggest something here. The last thing I really want to do is to > >go back to this fella and say tough luck; no change possible. I do intend > >to respond to him; he deserves a response. But I am really struggling with > >what to say. > >Sincerely, > >Mike > >Emmons CC > >