----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Smallcombe" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2011 12:34 PM Subject: Re: [SOG-UK] 1881 census > > > > > Just to be clear, I wasn't being critical of the LDS transcription and the > fact that it's freely available on multiple websites is fantastic. > > I was just wondering if an alternate version is, or would ever be, > available. Maybe one day. > > Paul Nice perhaps, but think of the economics. Why would a commercial organisation spend lots of money preparing an index for which they would need to charge (either directly or as a "hidden" component of a subscription) when researchers have free access. Doesn't add up for them - lots of more profitable things for them to do. Would a charity (FHS or whoever) want to do it? They probabbly have lots of more pressing projects that relate to totally unindexed records. So don't hold you breath!

One way that we can all help to improve existing transcriptions is by submitting corrections to errors when we find them - not just for our own relatives but for other people's as well. If I'm going through a page of search results, and see what seems to be an error, I take a minute to check the image and submit a correction if necessary. Obviously it would take too long to do this for every error I spot but I try to do at least one each time. Caroline Gurney

On 1 Sep 2011 at 16:46, Caroline Gurney wrote: > One way that we can all help to improve existing transcriptions is by > submitting corrections to errors when we find them - not just for our > own relatives but for other people's as well. If I'm going through a > page of search results, and see what seems to be an error, I take a > minute to check the image and submit a correction if necessary. > Obviously it would take too long to do this for every error I spot but > I try to do at least one each time. I was recently faced with a conundrum. I came across a household unrelated to me where - as quite often happens - the middle names of some of the members had been transcribed as if there were surnames (despite perfectly obvious dittos). However the surname was a very unusual one, possibly foreign - and badly written to boot - so I really couldn't be sure that it had been transcribed correctly. Indeed, I strongly suspected it hadn't been, but because of the handwriting it was impossible to determine what the enumerator had actually written. Should I submit the correction, even though I was fairly certain that my correction was also wrong? What would you have done? Peter

Peter, I think in those circumstances I would leave well alone, as I doubt my stab at a transcription of an illegible foreign name would be much use to anyone. Caroline On 1 September 2011 19:46, LostCousins <[email protected]> wrote: > I was recently faced with a conundrum. I came across a household unrelated to me where - as > quite often happens - the middle names of some of the members had been transcribed as if > there were surnames (despite perfectly obvious dittos). > > However the surname was a very unusual one, possibly foreign - and badly written to boot - so I > really couldn't be sure that it had been transcribed correctly. Indeed, I strongly suspected it > hadn't been, but because of the handwriting it was impossible to determine what the enumerator > had actually written. > > Should I submit the correction, even though I was fairly certain that my correction was also > wrong? What would you have done? > > Peter

----- Original Message ----- From: "LostCousins" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2011 7:46 PM Subject: Re: [SOG-UK] transcription errors > I was recently faced with a conundrum <snip> ... However the surname was a > very unusual one, possibly foreign - and badly written to boot - so I > really couldn't be sure that it had been transcribed correctly. Indeed, I > strongly suspected it > hadn't been, but because of the handwriting it was impossible to determine > what the enumerator > had actually written ... Should I submit the correction, even though I was > fairly certain that my correction was also > wrong? What would you have done? I too would have refrained from submitting an immediate "correction". But I'd have regarded it as rather a challenge and I'd have noted down the entry and then tried to see whether I could find any other references to the family in alternative sources. I might also have considered placing the details (and maybe even a copy of the image) online to see whether anyone else could offer useful suggestions. I'd only submit a correction if I felt completely satisfied about the eventual outcome. AJ