Hi Irene, Yes, for simplicity I didn't mention the issue of county and parish names. It was considered that these were a matter of known fact and were therefore to be transcribed using their universally known proper names. But, as you point out, even Arbitrators/County Co-ordinators were prone to error! All the bestJim From: IPollands@aol.com Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2015 08:53:44 -0500 Subject: Re: [SCT-ISLAY] Census Errors To: john.kemplen@ntlworld.com; jbaird@hotmail.com; sct-islay@rootsweb.com Just a quick note from a volunteer transcriber: I volunteered to work on transcribing the US. 1940 census for Family Search a few years ago. We had instructions and two different people did each page. If the transcription from both matched completely, fine. Any discrepancies whatsoever then went to an arbitrator to decide which was correct. Two examples. In the name columns our instructions were to type exactly as shown. I had one whose given name showed, very clearly, "Aron." The other transcriber and the arbitrator changed it to "Aaron." The 1940 census asked where each person had lived in 1935. State and county. The instructions said to correctly spell these. So I spent much time looking up counties on the Internet to be sure I spelled them correctly, only to have the arbitrator (sometimes) change them back to what was apparently written. Large country, 48 states (at that time), no way the census takers could have spelled all correctly, but our instructions clearly stated that we should do so. I got so frustrated that I haven't volunteered again. So errors happen all along the line, from the individual who didn't know where his parents were born (U.S. censuses), the census taker who misheard, or misspelled, the filing clerk who spilled their morning coffee on it, the transcriber who misread the original. We're human, mistakes get made, but thankfully we often manage to figure it all out. Irene, in Michigan (Searching for Marion Morrison, b. Islay, 1834-40, daughter of James Morrison and Jane/Janet McPhee/McPhail.)