Grrrrr! A*******!

[samhuzz]

Hi

Who transcribed the censuses on this anyway? Did they use Martians or something? Been looking for one of my Garners for years now, and so fed up of mistranscriptions, I searched through the whole of Aylestone to find him! He had been transcribed as Gaessner, or something similarly ridiculous! I'm sick of putting in corrections for the many people I find who have been mistranscribed, new people to A** would have no hope of finding them! I mean, Garner, it's not exactly an uncommon name is it? Well maybe in China or wherever they get these transcribers from! I can understand it a bit more with names such as Knifton that are in my tree!

Rant over

Sam

[Peter Goodey]

Who transcribed the censuses on this anyway?

"In 2008, one of our transcription vendors, Beijing Formax, performed a majority of our data transcription as measured by cost. "

This is stated in -

http://sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1469433/000095012309028902/d68252orsv1.htm

See also

http://www.formax.com.cn/

[michaelpipe]

You just have to love the quote from Beijing Formax:

"Its customers spread in USA, Europe and Japan by mouth to mouth because of its three "magic weapons": QUALITY, LOW COST and DELIVERY ON SCHEDULE. "

|jumphappy

[MarkJ]

Indeed! Bearing in mind that is on the front page of their website - presumably the first contact they have with prospective customers - and is shocking English, you have to wonder why Ancestry chose them to transcribe censuses which by their very nature tend to be quite hard to decipher.

I expect the price was a major factor in the decision....

Mark

[samhuzz]

The amount they charge though, you would expect them to have used some better quality transcribers. I wonder how many people have unsubscribed due to poor transcriptions, or worse, not being able to find their families on there because of the mistranscriptions. Mind you I have subscription to fmp also and they are not that much better. I only use it as you can search on addresses and therefore sometimes overcome mistranscriptions by looking for relatives that way.

[David Benson]

I've had to query images quite often with FMP and try to explain the problem. The problem is especially bad with older census transcriptions. I needed to search for ProP and the image returned is ProS - no use to me as it's after the P. It comes about because someone has transcribed a double SS as FS and in old handwritten pages it usually looks like fs with the first S being different. You would have thought that they would tell the transcribers of this very common way of writing SS.

[Jan1954]

You would have thought that they would tell the transcribers of this very common way of writing SS.One name in my ancestry is that of CROSS. I found the missing record transcribed as CROFS and, when I pointed out this transcription error and that SS was written as FS, I was told that I was incorrect and that their transcribers knew best. Tuh! http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee187/Jan_07/crossedarms.gif

I no longer have a subscription to that particular website.

[Davran]

See also

http://www.formax.com.cn/


Oh, I love it!

" How efficient and reliable workflow is designed to meet the requirement tests the technical and managing ability of a project manager. They passed the tests and continue to improve themselves to reach a higher level."

[Nicolina]

Like others I have had my fair share of mis-transcriptions but at least when making corrections FMP have immediately sent an acknowledgement and then another email to say that they agreed with me. They have even given me Credits for some corrections I have made, although I have a year's subscrption and do not need them. It's the thought that counts.
Instead of out-sourcing transcribing to non-English speaking countries why not get our prison inmates (or voluteers) to do it - the cost would be minimal and the money stay in this country.

[Jane Gee]

I to a certain extent have some sympathy for anyone transcribing old documents/writing. Having worked on the 1881 census some years ago it was a nightmare the writing was awful. however when transcribing do you go
1. with what you think it is or
2. what looks like an large looped f next to a small so put it as ss or fs.
I looked at something only this week and said to my husband how confusing it can be when the writing was so loopy. Granted it would prudent to employ people who understand the way people wrote at the time of the writing of the docuement.
I have however seen examples of transcribers who have rightly put down the way something was spelt because the original writer of the document made a mistake. |soapbox|
Jane

[AnnB]

http://www.formax.com.cn/

That link is priceless ;)

Best wishes
Ann

[Jane Gee]

Having been trawling round 2 sites for the surname Hoare it amazes me that whilst browsing I noticed that the surname Jeffrey was transcribed as something completely different. It means sometimes it might be worth ommitting the surname where possible putting all other info known and then checking what comes up.
Jane

[MaryFrances]

Jan1954 - I have an ancestor named Cross, but this had been transcribed as Crofe on the Hugh Wallis Site because of the old way of writing double s. I e-mailed them and explained and had a lovely answer fom them. They also corrected the entry.

[Jane Elderfield]

One name in my ancestry is that of CROSS. I found the missing record transcribed as CROFS and, when I pointed out this transcription error and that SS was written as FS, I was told that I was incorrect and that their transcribers knew best. ...

Jan, I've got CROSS among my ancestors too, and it gets mistranscribed as CROP.
JESSE is another one-- it shows up as JEFSA.

I have a lot of empathy with transcribers--some of those old handwritings are dreadful (that means "worse than mine"). Some transcribers have done excellent work deciphering unusual names, place names, and some very odd occupations.

One downfall of non-English-as-a-first-language transcribers is simply not knowing ordinary words used in England. One example of many: a person on a census, whose occupation is "Church of England minister", has his address transcribed as "The Rictory". Or addresses-- for a whole street-- are transcribed as "HIAJH Street" or whatever it was. (I forget the exact mistranscription, but I thought HIGH Street would be pretty hard to go wrong on if you knew English.)

I suppose we just have to keep on patiently posting those corrections....

Jane

[Tederator]

On the 1851 census I have a 'Benzoni' ancestor which has been transcribed as 'Burzorin', I would never have found it, but a B-G member pointed me to it, don't remember who it was but thank you for that, in the 1911 census I have an uncle whose first name was 'Jack' this has been transcribed as 'Frek', don't know how they worked that out.

Cheers

Ted.

[Thomasin]

I came across this today in the 1851 census, while looking for something else:

Geles Tob Randall Son 4 abt 1847 Birth city: Kiggs, Trembypimrts

I believe it's Jiles Job Randall, although in FreeBMD I can only find a Job Randall .... but the birthplace has me completely stumped. It's in the Wareham area of Dorset. HO107; 1856; page 17.

They've got his name right in 1861 - Giles Job, and the birthplace this time is Stoborough. (FMP transcribe it as Giles Gab). Interestingly, this 4 year old lad in 1851 has aged considerably, as in 1861 he's 20.

Thomasin

[Kerrywood]

Geles Tob Randall Son 4 abt 1847 Birth city: Kiggs, Trembypimrts

A real poser :D

Perhaps Kiggs has arisen from ditto-ing an entry higher up the page, which might be an attempt at Ridge (near Stoborough)?

But after that, is it Something Parish? It does look like Tremby, but I can't find anything likely in the surrounding area :confused:

Kerrywood

[Thomasin]

I did find a Wareham parish called Turners Puddle, but I thing you'll agree that, apart from the T and the P, this word doesn't resemble it at all.

I found this chap on later censuses, just as Giles - he's dropped the Job - and with a consistent birthplace of Stoborough.

Thomasin

[Dorset Girl]

Possibility is Lytchett Minster - the first word definitely fits - the second is a bit iffy but there isn't a t in the second word for Matravers so it would have to be Minster - what looks to be a dot on the last but one letter I think is actually part of an e
Marion

[Thomasin]

Marion, I think you're looking at the line with his mother's details. As you say, the birthplace here is Lytchett Minster and that has been deciphered correctly. The words in question are three lines down, and they are a real mess!

'Kiggs' really does look like that. As Kerrywood suggests, there are a lot of ditto marks - right to the bottom of the page, in fact. 'Kiggs' is in the county column, but 'Dorset' has been written correctly on the top line.

Incidentally, could somebody please tell me where to find the complete census reference on Anc*? I can see the first two sets of numbers and the page, but where is the folio number? (I've only been using it for two weeks and I'm still learning.)

Thomasin

[Copper]

I have found the family in 1851 using "The Genealogist". The age of Jiles has been transcribed as 9 not 4. They think his birth place is Trinity. The whole side of that page is too faded for me to read.

I see that they were living in the out parish of Holy Trinity. Maybe it does say Trinity for his place of birth. The village is Stoborough and the borough is Wareham.

[tony vines]

Jan1954 - I have an ancestor named Cross, but this had been transcribed as Crofe on the Hugh Wallis Site because of the old way of writing double s. I e-mailed them and explained and had a lovely answer fom them. They also corrected the entry.

As far as I am aware the Hugh Wallis site is an extremely useful link via batch numbers into the Family Search site owned by the Church of LDS. So pedantically once you do a search using the Hugh Wallis site you are effectively being connected to the LDS records i.e. Hugh Wallis did not transcribe them and any errors are those of the LDS site.

Incidentally I too have Cross relatives and they have a cross descendent (me) for the same reason as MaryFrances states.

cheers

[Thomasin]

I have found the family in 1851 using "The Genealogist". The age of Jiles has been transcribed as 9 not 4. They think his birth place is Trinity. The whole side of that page is too faded for me to read.

I see that they were living in the out parish of Holy Trinity. Maybe it does say Trinity for his place of birth. The village is Stoborough and the borough is Wareham.

Well spotted, Copper. 9 makes much more sense than 4, especially as the next oldest sibling is 11, and I can (just about) see Trinity. So would it read 'Trinity Parish'? Isn't it rather unusual to note the parish in that column?

Thomasin

[vjlitt]

I had an interesting conversation with a fellow family tree researcher who, like the original poster of this thread, had got to exasperation point and beyond with the appalling mistakes on A****y. Having been told that his corrections were not accepted, so would not be recognised by the site, he saw a little more than red especially as they were direct family line and he has the various certificates of the people involved. So with the bit between his teeth he started on the long and obstacle ridden task of trying to speak directly with one of the admin peeps at A****y. Eventually having got through to someone who bothered to listen to him he did ask the question as to why they had used non English speaking transcribers....the answer "so that they transcribe exactly what they see and have no inclination to correct anything ..... as would be the case with English speaking people who would often rely on preconceived information and knowledge"......
Amazing logic huh....oh and my friend is still trying pick his chin off the floor.....

[Jane Gee]

Hi
Luckily I know my one family very well and looking at christenings for Gillingham Kent on A*y yesterday noticed a john and then a John William christened quite close together and indexed as such.
However this I know is a MISTAKE because John William was in fact Colin William brother to John,therefore no chance of getting this changed even though the parish register show the correct details that I know.|banghead|
Jane

[Copper]

Some of my ancestors gave the name of the hamlet in which they were born. Some even gave the name of the house in which they were born! (The latter were the well off from East Anglia)

[Thomasin]

Some of my ancestors gave the name of the hamlet in which they were born. Some even gave the name of the house in which they were born! (The latter were the well off from East Anglia)

That's reasonable, I suppose - but unusual.

I'm sure that Kerrywood is right, and 'Kiggs' should be 'Ridge', but written 'Rigge'. On the basis of all the views given on this entry, I shall put a correction in for this chap's name, age and birthplace! Thank you, folks.

Thomasin

[Mary Anne]

...he did ask the question as to why they had used non English speaking transcribers....the answer "so that they transcribe exactly what they see and have no inclination to correct anything ..... as would be the case with English speaking people who would often rely on preconceived information and knowledge"......


As me old Mam would say "Heifer Dust!"

[pattenwalsh]

As a transcriber for two months now I can tell you that TWYS( type what you see) is the overiding factor.Even though you have perfect English it is very easy to assume an entry is not what you see but is what you preconceive it to be,you have to adhere to what the GRO indexes say.
The most recent one that I came across was a death registered at Aberystwyth
but the GRO said "Amerystwyth" so using TWYS that is the entry that was transcribed,even though I know this is incorrect.
And of course when it comes to surnames this can be a nightmare!

[vjlitt]

I totally agree that transcribers are asked to TWYS - but in the case of many of the mistakes found on A****y when you look at the original it is very clear that it has been incorrectly transcribed whether you are English speaking or not, therefore the reasoning for choosing a far Eastern company really boils down to finance - and the excuse given by A***y, whilst very justifiable, in this instance is total BS (or more politely as MaryAnnes ma would say heifer dust) and does not hold water.....

[James Corps]

Reading this thread has just made me realise why I don't subscribe to An*****y There are so many misspellings concerning my family name in English without taking into account the understandable misunderstandings that are bound to crop up with Chinese transcribers. Thats not to say that the sites I do subscribe to do not operate in a similar fashion. But you never know ......... I might be biased. Others tell me that they have very few problems
Jim

[Raymond M]

I have spent hours upon hours trying to unravel the mysterious disappearance of my great-uncle's family (including 6 of my father's cousins)from the 1901 census. They were all present in the 1891 census and one option, given some of the correspondence on BG, was possibly a poor transcription.

I decided to put on some soothing music and slowly work through Portsea, Portsmouth on A*******. Not the easiest of tasks but it's paid off.

The surname has been transcribed as CHARLIE (!) which I can assure you is nothing like the written word.

So, for all you insomniacs, and more especially the CLARKEs amongst you who might find a missing relation, enter the surname CHARLIE in A*******'s 1901 search box with no other detail and interrogate the results.

Don't forget to have some music playing |rant|to drown your screaming!

Ray

[lesleys]

One of our ancestors was entered on the census form "surname, Charles" so all his family were "charles'" rather than "surname" took ages to find them too!

[James Corps]

The obdurate attitude to doing somethimg because they are told to as opposed to what is logical seems to be endemic in amatuer genealogy. Within my own family I have come across two obvious place names transcription errors, one of which led me a merry dance. The other was a place that simply didn't exist and has also cropped up on another index (both owned by same company?) Unlike some of this thread responders I have not challenged those entries because I don't expect to be believed. People are very reluctant to admit errors exist in their work. They always think that cheap is best. As for percieved knowledge being a barrier......Claptrap

[Thomasin]

How about 'Chersondith' for Charmouth?

Thomasin