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  1. #1
    Wilkes_ml
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    Default Warning...if you use Ancestry

    for London Electoral registers 1832-1965.

    Whilst these are a fantastic and amazing source, I have just noticed that in (at least) the early 1920's where each polling district is assigned a letter A,B,C,D,E,F,G, etc.. The male head of each address has his name written with a - (dash) then the letter of the polling district

    however each head of household is transcribed with this polling district letter as an abbreviated middle name I know this confused me a little when looking at the index, but I would suspect those new to searching databases may dismiss these entries as not being "theirs" due to the resident having the wrong initial in their name! Only when looking at the original does it become clear that the letter is not part of the name!

  2. #2
    Super Moderator christanel's Avatar
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    Oh Wow Michelle thank you so much for this.

    I don't need the Electoral rolls for London so much for myself so haven't become familiar with the ins and outs of them and wouldn't have picked up on this little foible I am sure.
    Your explanation will be going in to my desk top 'hints' folder.

    Thanks again

    Christanel

  3. #3
    Wilkes_ml
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    After going through theses records again and sending links to ancestry support to explain the problem to them, I realised that the letter J in the name was not from the polling station letter, but whether the person was a juror or special juror as explained at the beginning of the register!

    What I hadn't realised was that this lot of records hadn't been transcribed by humans at all....it had been done by word recognition software! This would explain why I found nearly 50% of the addresses wrong.

    I first noticed that one woman moved roads a lot, but always had the same house number! when I looked at the originals, she was always at the same address of 3 Rose Way but the Road above Rose Way in the Register was Greeba Cottages (in small letters) and TURNEY ROAD (in capitals) and her address was often assigned wrongfully to Greeba Cottages or Turney Road.

    I also found her husband transcribed as being at 2 Rose way whereas her neighbour was listed as living with her!

    So my tip would be to ignore the addresses given in the index and check every original!!

  4. #4
    Wilkes_ml
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    oh, I had to laugh...the software couldn't even transcribe do (ditto) right...some poor woman had her address as dr! I thought "that really doesn't look right!" then I wondered, "how many people have their address recorded as ditto?"

    Now I'm starting to wonder how many of the names are wrongly transcribed in the index now!

  5. #5

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    Wouldn't it be good if someone had the time to go through and send an error message to Ancestry for each and every incorrect transcription. Perhaps they would be more careful .................... or perhaps they would come to rely on us correcting them to get it right. Hmmmmmmm perhaps it's a cunning plan to get people to do it free.
    Sadly, our dear friend Ann (alias Ladkyis) passed away on Thursday, 26th. December, 2019.
    Footprints on the sands of time

  6. #6
    Knowledgeable and helpful
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    must say I would like a £1 for every correction I have put in ......wouldnt have to pay for subscription!!

    at least this thread has told me why I found addresses differing on index to original.

    as for them using ditto have found a few instances on census of this.

  7. #7
    Wilkes_ml
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    Quote Originally Posted by sandiep View Post
    must say I would like a £1 for every correction I have put in ......wouldnt have to pay for subscription!!

    at least this thread has told me why I found addresses differing on index to original.

    as for them using ditto have found a few instances on census of this.
    It really did cross my mind to ask them whether they wanted to pay me to go through the registers and make sure they were indexed correctly, as I must have corrected 20 in one go, and then thought that they do rely on subscribers doing it for free.

  8. #8
    Wilkes_ml
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    i just did a search on the London electoral registers alone on the street address being do and got.......wait for it.....21,753 hits lol

  9. #9
    Super Moderator christanel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wilkes_ml View Post
    i just did a search on the London electoral registers alone on the street address being do and got.......wait for it.....21,753 hits lol
    I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Well yes I do. I take it you are not going to be correcting that little lot Michelle?

    Christanel

  10. #10
    Name well known on Brit-Gen
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    If you'd like to see some odd 'do' entries, look up :
    Lucretia Martin born 1843/4 St.James Surrey. Husband- James Martin.
    residence Oak cottages. Bermondsey
    RG10; Piece: 640; Folio: 131; Page: 55;

    James Martin 27
    Lucretia Martin 27
    James Ida 7
    Samuel Ida 6
    Albert Ida 4
    Lucretia Ida 3
    Henry Ida 1

    'Ida' is taken from the first badly written 'do' . should have been 'DUH !'

    crown copywrite c/o TNA
    Happy Families
    Wendy
    Count your Blessings, they'll all add up in the end.

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