Find Ancestors

Ive just spent a couple of hours trawling for part of my Horstead family. Ive already found them on the 1891 with the head's name wrong. Still cant find them anywhere but in my trawling I came across the following variations on the name Horstead - Horslead, Horshead, Horsted, Horstend, Horetead. Now they are just the ones that caught my eye and when I looked them up on the image could see they were obviously Horstead. It does make me wonder how many errors I havent picked up one and perhaps this is why all our spaceship ancestors are missing. I am going to make a list of all these errors and inform ancestry - there were also several errors per page of place names. I would urge anyone else who comes across errors to please inform ancestry so that bit by bit the info becomes more accurate for us all. By the way, anyone with a missing Horden family - its under Horster. And anyone with a missing Newstead family, try Herustead. Unbelievable, eh?

That's outsourcing for you!!!!!! Mary

Heather, Don't suppose you could find a mistranscription for William Shawcross aged 50 and his wife Clara aged 26 could you please !! you seem to know where to find all the mistranscriptions !! Keep up the good work !! Elaine :-)

Heather - you don't need to make a list. When you are on the page which has a person's individual record, apart from the link to the image, there's also a link for errors/corrections - that's where you put missing images, mistranscriptions etc.

Yes, Ive used that before, its just I didnt want to lose my train of thought whilst going through 3000 soundex entries for Horstead!! If everyone gave them just 7 a week - think how many corrections would be on there after a year! Still havent found my lot by the way, tried Korstead, Forstead, and so many variations that my head is spinning.

Bumping up For the day shift - Please note and ensure you correct the errors you find PLEASE. It will help all of us in the long run.

There's a whole load I've found - Jones as Genes, Jonas and Jones all in the same family! Perhaps the transcriber was having an off day. The 1871 census is either the worst for mistrancriptions, or it's just my lot. Can you still report them if you're using the site because you've stolen a free trial?

Ill have another go Jim, but I have spent literally days looking for these guys. Cant imagine where they can be but then if Newstead can become Herustead, what chance have I got??? I keep trying to think what a capital H could be mistransribed as, K? J?

I've found similar problems recently looking for my Hawkridge's on 1837. I type in Births, the year, blah blah then surname Hawkridge, first name whatever and some of the pages that have come up are the wrong ones cos they have HAWKEDGE as the first name on the page when it's actually Hawkridge. Does that make sense? It means I can't get to the pages I'm after cos no matter how many times I put the name in, I can't seem to get to the pages I need to view Lou

Hi Heather, I've had exactly the same problem as yourself. I've spent hours looking for people who actually don't (didn't)exist. One of my ancestors was born Shorncliffe, Kent - and the image states that quite clearly - the transcription reads Staincliffe, Hants. I've been looking for months for an ancestor Alfred A who was actually Alfred J and died in childhood and there are many more. I've told Ancestry through their report errors connection - am still waiting for them to update unfortunately. I feel a bit bad about complaining too though, cos I believe the people who transcribe are volunteers and it must be a bit mind boggling after a while. I'd volunteer myself but don't actually know how to. There are errors on 1837 as well I'm sure everyone's come across those too. There's also an error report option - but I've noticed these aren't corrected very speedily either. Jan Power

Hi, no, I dont think ancestry would have vollies doing the job, its a commercial outfit, so complain away. Freebmd is voluntary - I did a bit for them until family probs got in the way and I am sure they are a lot more careful in checking than ancestry is! If anyone wants to volunteer, go to their site and click on the right tab to enter your details. 1837 is also a profit making organisation but as you say, not all records appear anywhere unfortunately.

Hi again, you're right I know about 1837, and it can be costly cos we still have to pay for opening the page don't we. I'll certainly be picking up Ancestry a lot more in future cos their errors are numerous. I'll check the Freebmd site, thanks Jan P

Hi to volunteer for BMD just go to the freebmd site and you will see a little heading, for volunteers. On the volunteer page you check on the top name on the groups listed looking for vollies. You receive an email from the group organiser who will send you images via email to transcribe as a sort of test! After you have done a page or so (I think there is about 350 names on a page plus districts etc.) you email it back to your group organiser who checks it - points out any problems (i.e. you have to put down exactly what it says, whether it looks wrong and is spelt wrong, you still put down exactly, every full stop and comma) then you upload your efforts to the freebmd site. You then get more sent to you to transcribe and upload. They are double checked, as you probably know, the entries in bold have been done twice. Good luck. I think it takes about 3 hours a month.

Just a thought but when I was researching the name Bunnell on familysearch (LDS) I found the family listed on the 1881 census as Bannell. Now that ancestry have finally put out the same census on thier web-site...lo and behold it,s been transcribed as Bannell. The image is plainly Bunnell. Leads me to believe that ancestry have just pinched all the transciptions from the LDS!!

I was looking through records for a workhouse (luckily managed to find my relative) and lots of the 'inmates' were clearly from Somerset on the image - however they had all been transcribed as being from Somalia!! Apparently there is no facility to amend places as yet, only names so if any one is looking for rellies from Somerset, try searching in Somalia! Sam

Sam do workhouse census lists come up on the general census or do you have to look elsewhere. Just cant find one particular family in Stepney and wondered if thats where they all were.

Hi Heather, They all come up on the ordinary census as far as I know although there is a website that lists all the 'inmates' of the ones in 1881 - try www.workhouses.org.uk Sam