Find Ancestors

It's no wonder we sometimes struggle to find people on the census. From one parish of 512 people on the 1891 census, I've found the following (transcribed name first, name as per image second):- Atkinson - Lancaster; Barkhau - Barkham; Bowsher - Rosher; Cockerell - Cockerill; Conlas - Coultas; Dellert - Sellers; Fentum - Fentrum; Frattles - Trattles; Gesfield - Nesfield; Hurt - Hurd; Jeffetts - Jeffels; Keckingbottom - Higginbottom; Kimple - Sample; Oland - Bland; Richelson - Richardson; Rochen - Rosher; Rodgson - Hodgson; Shubbo - Stubbs; Stanker - Sterriker; Trahles - Trattles; TruTTles - Trattles; Ulliatt - Ulliott; Wierson - Pearson; Wilkison - Wilkinson; Yeaman - Yeoman And then we wonder!!! Jools

Hi Jools Thanks for that. So I'm not going barmy thinking that my Woodward had become Huddert!! Heather

Sometimes you can have a guess - Chowns as Chouns for example. Sometimes its been written badly - my Matthews' were recorded without the ts being crossed and the transcriber put Marthers. But my favourite is Smoothy - these were my gt grandparents and I thought there won't be many of them to sort through. Couldn't find them at all. Finally tracked down as Lenorthey! When even the first letter is wrong its a miracle we find anyone at all!

Hi Jools, What a mixture! It's really frustrating to know what to even try to look for! You certainly need perseverance for this lark!!

Hi Jools, like everyone else I thought it was just my family, Slafford instead of Spafford but SMITH instead of Spafford? As you say no wonder we can't find anyone! Pauline

Jools Just a few of mine that have been transcribed wrong WALLS for MALES OLVEN for OWEN HULTON for HUTTON HASLON and HASLOW for HASLAM and HETHERMAN for KETTEMAN Shirley

It's not just names - I was looking for links to families and thought I had a single /widowed father on 1901 living with his 3 year old daughter. You've guessed - it was his wife and she was 37! (The rest of the large family were on the next page) Jan

Jools, Jeez, I do wonder if my elusive O'Learys been badly transcribed then ! ARGH!!! Wished the transcribed was thoughly checked before submitting it to ancestry!! T

My worst one to date was LARHN for Sartain, from the 1881 LDS site! At least I think that must be it, the trouble with that site is that the original images aren't available on-line to check. Also it doesn't help when the transcriber has missed the surname altogether, and therefore copied the surname from the previous family down ("ditto, ditto"). I think that my Parsons family got given the surname Driver on the 1881 - the first names all match, and according to the transcription there were two heads in the Driver household! I found both of the above by doing first-name/birth-place searches. Mind you, that doesn't always work - my Davis lot all had their places of birth out by one line, so that the father was listed as born at the wife's birthplace, the wife at the first child's birthplace, etc! Aaaarrrggghhh!

My poor transcription tale wins! Philip Heckingbottom (clearly visible on the 1901 census original image) was transcribed as Philip Bottom, living with his wife Saint J Bottom (Sarah Jane, again clearly visible) and their various children! So, my gt gt grandmother was a saint eh! It's a government document .... it must be true! Needless to say when I emailed to complain/ask for countless wasted views of images totalling upwards of £20 to be refunded (as I had to search for Philips of the correct age born in Lancashire!) my e-mail was completely ignored!!

This deserves a nudge.. So other people'll know that they're not alone! T

Considerably cheered by this thread perhaps my Fairy family didn't completely die out after all! Had hundreds of them before 1891 and then they all seemed to follow the Pied Piper and disppear by the 1901 perhaps a magic wand has been waved I'll try agin!! Marlene

Ditto Thank goodness we're not alone my Coone's have been : Kunz, Coon, Cooney, Comb, Combes all relative close to the actual spelling or phonic sound, but still pretty hard to pin them all down. However not as bad as some. Much happiness Debi

Does anyone have DURIE or DURRIS or DURIS or DUIRS on their tree -I`m stuck with them in Scotland as the name keeps changing. Rosalyn

thank goodness im not alone..lol mine are hathaway=hathausay hatton=watton but i still cant find grandpa roberts...grrrr any idea what he could be transcribed as?? ive tried all things,even just putting his first name in ,but still cant find him!! susie

I'm glad it's not just me. i'm still looking on the 1901 census for two families WELLS and LOVE tried everything still no luck Bev

Hi With regard to what Lesley said about the 1901 census, and e-mails about corrections being ignored, I have sent in e-mails to correct things at least four times, and never got a single reply; I hoped they would at least comment on my suggestion that people who sent a certain number of corrections that were taken up could get concessions in use of the site, but no such luck... Mind you, if they did do this, they would probably make a loss... Lysianne

Hi all, THANK YOU GEN YOUR A GEM FOR FINDING WENTZELLS IN 1881. ! Here's one to add NEUTZELL for Wentzell, similiar in some way, is it no wonder we go SLIGHTLY mad looking, Happy Hunting one and all, J.C.

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