Hi Folks, I am struggling through the 1851 Census via an Ancestry.com subscription loooking at all the O*sbo*rn* variations and I have never found so many transcribers errors before on any other name search. Has anyone had a similar experience. Most of the errors are fairly obvious but in the past I have made an effort to inform Ancestry but they dont make it simple and quick so I am not doing it anymore, I would appreciate comments Phil White

Hi Phil There are certain names that are more prone to error than others I think if you asked the majority of people even today they would recognise OSBORN or OSBOURN but may think ORSBORN and variations were misspellings Given the poor handwriting of many people particularly in the earlier census its not surprising the enumerators had a hard time making out what they had actually written, exacerbated by the short time they had to transcribe and send back their returns They may be fairly obvious to you as you know what you are looking for but the transcribers who did the work would not have been As to informing Ancestry of errors ? *You don't* you do it yourself, it could not be simpler and will add to the searchable index in around two weeks after input On the transcribed part of the name found with errors, select Add Alternative Information Then select the field you want to alter If its a surname, entering the first name will when entered prompt if you want to also do the same for others in the same household, therefore you only need to enter once Its very easy and also has the benefit of noting who has done that correction so future researchers may make contact with you when they find it Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) > Hi Folks, I am struggling through the 1851 Census via an Ancestry.com > subscription loooking at all the O*sbo*rn* variations and I have never > found so many transcribers errors before on any other name search. Has > anyone had a similar experience. Most of the errors are fairly obvious > but in the past I have made an effort to inform Ancestry but they dont > make it simple and quick so I am not doing it anymore, I would > appreciate comments Phil White

I agree with Nivard. It is especially hopeful that when you do make the corrections, someone connected to that line will try to contact you.. Gail ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SUFFOLK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message