Genealogy Chat

Margaret appreciate your comments, but it's the slap dash of some of the transcribers of Ancestry.com that is the thorn in my backside. Pulling a few tricks and using wildcards I know about, but when you are looking for an individual like Peter Campbell and find that it's been transcribed as Pet Camoshell but quite clearly from the original it states Peter Campbell all logic flies out of the window or was that were it went in the beginning. Seems like the transcribers are being paid by the line and thank god for soundex. Lin

The difference between a transcriber and a searcher is that the searcher knows what they are looking for. The transcriber can only put what they see, your John Smith may well look like Joan Amite to the transcriber, so thats what he puts. Doing look ups on these boards, often it is only because I have been told the correct name that I recognise the entry, if I was transcribing the page I would not have been able even to make an aproximate guess at the name. I transcribe for FreeBMD and FreeCens, and on the grounds I may well have been responsible for sending some here barking up the wrong tree because of a few errors amongst the thousands of names I have entered, I offer my humble apologies. :-) dave