I have just finished searching family members in the 1881 Canadian Census disk set. A large number of the names I was looking for contained serious spelling errors which would prevent a novice genealogist from finding their ancestors, using correct spelling. Even allowing for the difficulty of reading the writing of the 1800's, I seriously question the reliability and diligence of some of those doing the coding. Makes you wonder about the reliability of the rest of the facts. Obviously, one needs to use these cd's as a guide and reference the original records. Margaret in Toronto

This is so true of researching. One has to be very careful or diligent I suppose, and keep an open mind, either as a novice or an old hand at the genealogy game. Names can be tricky at the best of times, but to a non trained census taker of that time a job well done. A lot of them wrote a name as they heard it, pronounced to them by the person saying the name, and how they thought it was written. The information is very valuable, and nine out of ten times the info is correct. I have not seen the 1881 Canadian Census but do know that the names are transcribed as they are written, if those folks who compiled the Census documents for computers had the monumental task of figuring out that McKwilken or McCooken was actually McQuilken/McQuilkin/McQuilkan for example..... we would never get to see transcribed census documents. On another note, there were immigration schemes that brought people out to Canada for a fee, and the promise of land, but there were age restrictions, some people in the Old Country lied about their ages just to get here, that is why birthdates can be very wrong and varied. Most documents are transcribed as seen, face value..... not as what a transcriber figures it should be. Cheers Christine ----- Original Message ----- From: "Margaret Kipp" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, May 10, 2002 2:09 AM Subject: [SCTCDN] 1881 Census CD's from the Mormons > > I have just finished searching family members in the 1881 Canadian Census > disk set. A large number of the names I was looking for contained serious > spelling errors which would prevent a novice genealogist from finding their > ancestors, using correct spelling. Even allowing for the difficulty of > reading the writing of the 1800's, I seriously question the reliability and > diligence of some of those doing the coding. Makes you wonder about the > reliability of the rest of the facts. Obviously, one needs to use these > cd's as a guide and reference the original records. > > Margaret in Toronto > > > ==== SCOTS-IN-CANADA Mailing List ==== > To unsubscribe: [email protected] inserting the word unsubscribe in both the subject line and the text area and using a fresh email to do it. Use -D- if you are in Digest mode. > > ============================== > 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 >