The value of spelling errors

[GeoffD]

I've long ago discovered that a common spelling error or typo in a search keyword can produce true gems of information. But this takes the cake.

Just had an e-mail from another researcher of the Maundrell name. We have been frustrated by being unable to find records of the family's migration to Queensland, but by accidentally typing "Moundrell" instead of "Maundrell", he discovered "Ophelia", 1875. A transcription error cancelled out by a typo. (No SOUNDEX in the Queensland Immigration Archives.)

Why didn't I think of that? :o

[Diane Grant-Salmon]

Hi Geoff,

Whenever I searched Ancestry for a surname, I always tried all variations of the spelling I could think of e.g. Honniball (with one n and one l) Houniball, Honneball, Honeyball to name a few. Then realised it was easier and faster to use the wild card symbol of * e.g. Hon* which covers some of the above, in one swoop!
Then the same with Han* but this did not find one Honniball, who was indexed as Flonniball ...... I found him by accident, when I clicked on the 'F' page, when I was trying to guess where the 'H' page was, after searching under the forename only! :D

[Frank W]

The alphabetically indexed surname lists for Census pieces can be useful in finding variations of the surnames.
Most useful for this when they include the 'best guesses' and when the variations all start with the same letter.
You can sometimes spot more unlikely variants or misreads by scrolling through the list, but it needs some appreciation of the way handwriting may appear to the indexers.
'Exact spelling' searches and even those using 'wild' characters may be misleading when they only give negative results.

Regards......Frank W

[Mythology]

"'Exact spelling' searches and even those using 'wild' characters may be misleading when they only give negative results."

Yes - that's what I hate about sites that *only* have a search engine, not a list, when there's no particular reason why the list from which the search engine has been programmed should not be included.

I once encountered Stanningfield mistranscribed as Hanningfield. Now, having seen the original, I cannot blame the transcriber - in that particular style of writing, the St does look rather like an H, and if they've heard of Hanningfield in Essex but not Stanningfield in Suffolk, who can blame them? If that site had only a search engine though, would I have thought of looking for Hanningfield? Quite honestly, I doubt it.

[GeoffD]

I once encountered Stanningfield mistranscribed as Hanningfield. Now, having seen the original, I cannot blame the transcriber - in that particular style of writing, the St does look rather like an H, and if they've heard of Hanningfield in Essex but not Stanningfield in Suffolk, who can blame them?

I would like a TARDIS to go back to before 1841 and give the enumerator for Awliscombe Parish a few writing lessons (and a good pen). Or strangle him, whichever is easier. The obsolete "ss" I worked out OK, but some of the other stuff is messin' wit' m' brain. Can't wait to get onto Hemyock - a schoolteacher did that one and he has a beautiful hand. (He's also a family connection of the husband of a lovely old duck cousin (of some kind) with whom I correspond.)

[Linda]

I would like a TARDIS to go back to before 1841
That far back?
I would like to go back to 1891 and ask my great grandad where he was REALLY born, and where the heck was he in 1861, 1871 and 1881? ;)

Linda

[Mythology]

Look - his father was a publican, right?
You don't really think he was ever sober enough to fill in a census return, do you? ;)

[Linda]

I wonder if he really was a publican Mythology, or was it that my great grandad thought his dad was a publican because he was never home and when his mom always said "Oh he's down the pub" she really meant he was holding up the bar with a pint in hand?:eek:

|cheers|