From: fenenga@connpoint.net > if you're in Ancestry, you go to the sidebar where the record was > transcribed. there's several choices, the one you want is "add > alternate information. within that there is a drop down file that includes > transcription error, and make the corrections there. if you're > using another website, you'll have to ask them. > I have considerable doubts about the wisdom of Ancestry in permitting "corrections" to census entries except in cases where the transcription is clearly at odds with what is on the image. Findmypast accept corrections based on this formula but do not accept so-called corrections based on other factors, i.e. individual knowledge. It would appear to me that allowing people to submit alternatve information, as Ancestry do, is fraught with dangers. How are we to know that the "correction" is itself accurate? Are there not dangers that several people will submit their own interpretation of a census entry, which may well conflict with others? There is only one golden rule for transcribing which is this: YOU TRANSCRIBE EXACTLY WHAT YOU SEE. Given this fact, an enumerator's alleged error is NOT an error if the original has been transcribed correctly. If you think the enumerator made a mistake, then you are perfectly free to annotate this in your own files with a side-note. Making it public may well simply confuse others, especially if there is more than one "correction". This is a very basic tenet of family history research, i.e. you must accept what an original document says if it has been correctly transcribed, even if you think it's wrong. -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE

From: roy.stockdill@btinternet.com > > if you're in Ancestry, you go to the sidebar where the record > > was transcribed. there's several choices, the one you want is "add > > alternate information. within that there is a drop down file that > > includes transcription error, and make the corrections there. if you're > > using another website, you'll have to ask them. > > > I have considerable doubts about the wisdom of Ancestry in > permitting "corrections" to census entries except in cases where the transcription is clearly at > odds with what is on the image. Findmypast accept corrections based on this formula but do > not accept so-called corrections based on other factors, i.e. individual knowledge. > > It would appear to me that allowing people to submit alternatve > information, as Ancestry do, is fraught with dangers. How are we to know that the "correction" is > itself accurate? Are there not dangers that several people will submit their own interpretation > of a census entry, which may well conflict with others? > > There is only one golden rule for transcribing which is this: YOU > TRANSCRIBE EXACTLY WHAT YOU SEE. Given this fact, an enumerator's alleged error is NOT > an error if the original has been transcribed correctly. If you think the enumerator > made a mistake, then you are perfectly free to annotate this in your own files with a > side-note. Making it public may well simply confuse others, especially if there is more than one > "correction". > > This is a very basic tenet of family history research, i.e. you must > accept what an original document says if it has been correctly transcribed, even if you > think it's wrong. > I have a classic case in my own researches where I know an enumerator made an error but I wouldn't dream of trying to get it changed because the transcription was accurate. A pair of my gt-gt-gt-grandparents, William and Margaret MOODY, appear in the 1851 census at Bradford with their birthplaces transposed! The census page gives William's birthplace as Darley and that of Margaret (nee Grange) as Otley. In fact, I know from other evidence (parish register baptisms) that it was the other way round - William was born at Otley and Margaret at Darley in Hampsthwaite parish. So either William made a mistake when he wrote out the entry in the schedule or the enumerator mixed them up when copying it into his book (more likely). I have made an annotated note in my records of these facts, which I would pass to other researchers if approached. However, I wouldn't put it online at Ancestry or anywhere else (except here, of course!) because a correction based on personal knowledge is not a valid reason if the transcription is accurate, in my book. I have no doubt others will disagree but I suspect most professionals wouldn't. -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE