Genealogy Chat

I dont know about the censuses on Ancestry but apparently all the family tree info is put into a programme which then takes a 'vote' on info and uses it as a 'hint' to other people researching the same name. In other words if 3 people put in some wrong info and one puts in the correct info, the wrong info is then given as the 'hint', which means that more people copy it, and it just keeps on growing as the accepted 'fact'. Grrrrrrrrrr.

I couldn't agree more - you should try to see how they cope with Welsh names and locations (badly is the answer).

However, it did make me laugh recently when I came across one of my family with a 3 year old daughter. In the occupation section she was shown as "Playing".

Lynn

Well, thats just silly isnt it - I mean it must get boring sitting there for 8 hours a day working on hard to read images but if you cant make a sensible decision ....................

I've found on Ancestry -
"Andrew Spiedgman, Engine Littes (emlinglgal)" - actually "Andrew Speedyman, Engine Fitter (unemployed)". (Sigh).

I always correct all duff names that I find, even if I find them just by
accident on there - (poor little Alien Brown is hopefully now Alice) BUT what annoyed me was when you submit a correction it says something like "If you have a US sub you can volunteer to check all submitted corrections to get them quickly added to the data base"

WELL I emailed them last week and said that the chance to volunteer to check the submissions should be extended to the UK members and ALSO when are they adding the facility to correct addresses. I also said that that should definitely be open to UK members as we are all au fait with the fact Somalia is not a county in England but Somerset certainly is.

Had a mail back yesterday - nice one actually - saying they would be putting this forward, both UK members checking and also the facility for address corrections and they would get back to me. The chap who sent it said they also felt it was much more sensible to have UK members correcting UK addresses.

Lets hope they do - I mean we are offering free of charge to make their data correct and as they have just been sold to another company Id have thought they would want to improve the service as much as possible.

If I hear back, Ill add it to this board.

In my "Pike" search, I've just found a family where only 1/2 of them are listed in the "others on the page" but including "Mother's name THOMAS" - Thomas is the 10 yr old son,about half way down the list of family members, the mother is quite clearly "Sarah" next to the husband!
No wonder newbies think they're daft sometimes when they can't see something listed as it should be!

Petrina

Ancestry is probably the worst for this as they used people who weren't familiar with the names

We have Tewkesbury indexed as Chucksbury.....!

Mad isn't it!
as if it isn't hard enough with Mary swapping to Maria between censuses etc! At least if the transcription was LIKELY to be a name, sometimes it looks like a random generation of letters!!


I'm stuck on the "PIKE" family 1871 (got them all other censuses), any ideas as what it might be turned into ? Tried Peek, Peke,etc.........

Petrina

Hi Petrina

Know what you mean. My family are mistranscribed on nearly every census.

And what about these yellow triangles for alternate names - I have notice several where the transcription is WilliaM and an alternate name is given as WilliaN!

On one census I did a correction for the surname of one member of a family and now all the family have a yellow triangle giving that as their alternate surname. This could seriously confuse anybody researching this family who are complicated enough!

Pam

Is it me or is it getting worse on Ancestry?
I know those old scribbles are hard to read sometimes,
I can understand someone who doesn't know a place typing "MELMESBURY" for Malmesbury and it doesn't stop us making the connection BUT

"FLORSFLEEN" ?????? for Froxfield?

and heaven help anyone looking for a 'Stephen' in my family when he is transcribed as "STHENELOS" --- is that even a name????

NO WONDER MY EYES HURT....!
Petrina