Genealogy Chat

Has anyone else noticed some of the shocking transcription errors on Ancestry? I've been looking for a PRESTON family for ages and have finally found them as BARTON!!!! It's clearly Preston on the original - I suppose the moral is - always check the original.

so true Lady V, so true. I searched and searched for Minnie , one day without realising it i had spelt it wrong she turned up as uiuuie, LOL. :-) always check the original :-)

Took me ages to find a PIERCE trancsribed as RELLPIENE in 1861 lol Sarah

Nichola and Sarah -it's really quite bizarre isn't it - I can understand it with unusual names but not with common ones. And as for places... I won't even go there!

Some other kind person on here managed to find one lot of my BARNES family mistranscribed as BAMER *sigh* I thought I'd thought of all permutations until I saw that !! XX Sioux

Ancestry Placenames are brilliant! One of my families are (apparently) born in Western Sahara, Durham! I'd love to know how that came about, but unfortunately the original page does not match any of the names, so that is wrong too Bev x

Looks like there was a touch of dyslexia around, even in those days!! Happy Searching All!! Kimx

You find me a transcribed census and I'll find some clangers. I estimate that about 70% of my ancestors on the govt 1901 site are wrongly transcribed. There are booboos on the 1891 (Ancestry) 1881(LDS) , 1871 (Ancestry) and 1861 (1837online). nell

You find me a transcribed census and I'll find some clangers. I estimate that about 70% of my ancestors on the govt 1901 site are wrongly transcribed. There are booboos on the 1891 (Ancestry) 1881(LDS) , 1871 (Ancestry) and 1861 (1837online). nell

Wonder if my elusive MARY RATTRAY has been misspelt somewhere? I`ve tried RATTERAY, RATTERY-no luck. Rosalyn

Bev mentioned Western Sahara, now situated in County Durham..... All the people born there seem to have actually been born in a place called ''Esh'' in County Durham. How does Esh get converted into Western Sahara?? I had always thought that all the Somalia entries for Somerset occurred because the two words would be next to one another on a selection list, but now I'm wondering...... Sarah

Sarah: ''How does Esh get converted into Western Sahara??'' I suspect that this is due to Ancestry using an automatic translator to convert Chapman Codes into place-names. The Chapman Code for Western Sahara is ESH (because it used to be called Spanish Sahara, or Espana-Sahara). Similarly, the Chapman code for both Somerset and Somalia is SOM. Other frequently-confused Chapman codes are KEN (Kent and Kenya), ARM (Armenia & Armagh), HUN (Huntingdon & Hungary), PER (Perthshire & Peru). That is why if you are using the Chapman codes abbreviation system, you should always put the country code as well as the county/state - e.g. ''Esh, DUR, ENG'' or ''Taunton, SOM, ENG'' etc.

Thanks Richard! I didn't know that! And it explains a lot! Bev x

Richard - Thanks - that's a great tip - am going back for my Huntingdon rellies to see if i can find them in Hungary!! Sarah

Yep I was searching some of my line the other day and there are loads of first names that are wrong. I have corrected some of them but I don't know if they will get updated.When asked for the reason for changing them I didn't know what to put exept some are my lot and I know there was never a Joan in this family it was a Jane and so on. The anoying thing is when I check the actual census some of the names have been quite readable,so who actually transcribes them I don't know but I reckon we could do a better job of it. Angie x

Bev, I tried finding some ancestors in Somerset, and learned that according to Ancestry they were from Somalia not Somerset. ;-) Andy

My Leicestershire rellies seemed to have moved to Leichtenstein. As for the name errors - don't start me off!!!

Angela That must follow Richard's theory - both starting with LEI. I've had so many of my 'Last' rellies transcribed as Lush and Lust .......... so appropriate too! lol!