Reporting errors on census, Irish Genealogy sites etc

CeannRua · 25-10-2011 6:37pm #1

Just wondering if anyone has reported errors on either of these websites and if the errors have been corrected?

Waitsian · 25-10-2011 6:58pm

I've not reported errors on any Irish sites but have on Ancestry, and they've been corrected.

pinkypinky · 25-10-2011 7:35pm

I've reported several errors on the census but never had a response or a repair. I also wrote to them about a whole book of returns from Cappoquin being missing (I compared the numbers on the 1901 and the statistical report on 1926 and they were definitely missing). I heard at Back to Our Past that they were not fixing census errors.

Haven't fixed anything on irishgenealogy or elsewhere.
I'm really interested to hear if others have though.

zagmund · 25-10-2011 7:53pm

I've reported things on the census, but I haven't checked to see if they have been fixed. I'll have to try to remember the details and see if I can find them again.

z

CeannRua · 25-10-2011 8:03pm

Thanks folks. I've reported things on the census but so long ago now I can't remember what. The errors in four different words in my gg grandparents' marriage record on Irish Genealogy depressed me so much I feel the need to correct things! But it would be good to know the changes will be made or even looked at rather than me just wasting my time. It's bad enough when you have half an idea what you're looking for, but I feel sorry for people who can't find what they're looking for, even though it might be in the system somewhere lurking behind bad transcription.

Alicat · 25-10-2011 9:53pm

I reported one error I saw, but it hasn't been amended. The surname was clearly Goodman, but the census website had it listed as 'Goo Lenin', which is obviously not a real surname. It was about two years ago, and I put a post up in a Goodman surname forum so that this poor woman wouldn't be lost forever. Only last month I got an email from a woman who thinks this Goodman lady is part of her family, so I feel it was worthwhile!

pedroeibar1 · 25-10-2011 11:12pm

I wrote to Irishgenealogy.ie with a correction on a well-known CoI cleric,
Henry Le Fanu who went on to be a senior churchman in Australia and gets long mention in their DNB. Irishgenealogy have him described as 'HENRY LE BANEE'

In response I received :
Many thanks for your comments. There is no provision to currently amend any suspected errors or omissions in the transcribed records available. However we will soon be adding an error reporting mechanism to the website which people can use to notify us of errors from which we can then make the necessary amendments.

P.

DaveCol · 26-10-2011 1:21pm

I have reported census errors but none have been corrected yet

genie · 26-10-2011 11:28pm

I've reported numerous mistakes on the Census and some have been corrected. I've never received a response but I've never really expected one.

Corsendonk · 29-10-2011 5:51pm

I have report mistakes on the Census using the report feature and also referenced the previous census but one year later still no corrections.

ZombieBride · 30-10-2011 12:00pm

I always report errors if I see them, but haven't checked any of them up that I can remember to see if they have been amended.

ifitburwilll · 06-11-2011 2:43am

I too have reported errors to no avail .I will be at the National Archives in early December and I will bring these posts to their attention. I will revert back then with their reply.

Jellybaby1 · 08-11-2011 11:55am

I just trawled through more than 5,900 entries on the Census to find a family I knew were there, but weren't coming up. I eventually found them. The handwriting of the name had been misread. If the name you are searching for has two R's together in it, they often misread them and enter either one or two S's or N's. I can't understand in some of these cases how native eyes could have read these names wrong as what was typed in is a name unknown in Ireland. I can forgive a certain amount of typing errors but was no-one checking or double checking the work as it was being done to minimise error?

pinkypinky · 08-11-2011 12:18pm

The crux of the problem is that "native eyes" were not doing the transcribing. The first few tranches of 1911 were done by Library & Archives Canada and the rest of it plus 1901 was done by a company in India. I know someone who did a bit of error checking (out of interest) and he said there were fewer errors in the later work done.

pedroeibar1 · 08-11-2011 12:44pm

A relative that eluded me for a long time was due to a marriage cert mistranscription where Terence was transcribed as Jerome. The fault was simply due to poor writing where an 'open' J was followed by the remaining letters being squeezed together to fit on the page. Looking at the original it was easy to see how it happened.
P

Jellybaby1 · 08-11-2011 1:53pm

I agree that handwriting has to be interpreted by the reader. However, I am gobsmacked that this work was done outside the country. How did they transcribe Gaelic names then, if errors were made on simple English ones? I am not one for bad language but %^&*#!!!:mad:

shanew · 08-11-2011 3:19pm

I dont think that many of the returns filled in 'as Gaeilge' have been transcribed, and those that have often only include basic details - i.e. name, age and sometimes relationship

S.

pinkypinky · 08-11-2011 3:30pm

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

I agree that handwriting has to be interpreted by the reader. However, I am gobsmacked that this work was done outside the country. How did they transcribe Gaelic names then, if errors were made on simple English ones? I am not one for bad language but %^&*#!!!:mad:

When they first released Dublin and Belfast, none of the Irish returns were transcribed at all. You could hit return on an empty form and bring up tonnes of Irish returns.

Oh and it cost €4.5m to do them.

Jellybaby1 · 08-11-2011 6:33pm

pinkypinky wrote: »

Oh and it cost €4.5m to do them.

Was that a BOGOF offer!:rolleyes:

Hermy · 09-11-2011 1:50am

One of my relatives Mary Baptista was transcribed as Bagot William in 1901 and Mary B?phi? Josephi? in 1911.

Jellybaby1 · 09-11-2011 6:23pm

Hermy wrote: »

One of my relatives Mary Baptista was transcribed as Bagot William in 1901 and Mary B?phi? Josephi? in 1911.

And we actually paid taxpayers money for that! I could have done with one of those jobs, and would have loved doing it.

dido2 · 09-11-2011 11:11pm

Maybe if they had asked for volunteers they might have got some people to do it for nothing!!

I recently found what I think is a family member for my husbands family and searching in both census to try place them, couldn't find a match so searched by area, found the family but they had spelt their name differently, which was fine but the Daniel in 1911 census was a David in 1901, so I checked the census return and it's quite clear that it's a Daniel, I can understand not being able to understand writing but it was so clear!

Jellybaby1 · 09-04-2014 9:17pm

Don't know if I am allowed to add to an old thread but I'm just coming back to this subject of errors on the Census transcriptions. I have reported a few of the errors I found on my own family records, but nothing has been corrected. I am just wondering, as I have found numerous other errors on records not connected at all to myself what are the thoughts of posters here about reporting those errors? Does anyone else report errors which don't affect your own family tree in any way? Is it worth bothering any more?

blue banana · 09-04-2014 9:37pm

At a conference recently Caitriona Crowe of NAI explained that 12,000 errors have been corrected on the 1901 and 1911 census, in the past year. I had noticed a major improvement in the spelings of addresses in recent months, so it looks like it wasn't just my imagination.

Jellybaby1 · 10-04-2014 1:41pm

Sadly the errors I reported have not been fixed yet. Maybe I will report them again and see in a few months. But my question was mainly regarding errors on other records that you come across - i.e. I have seen Lynam entered as Synam but its not my family. Should I intrude by reporting it?

Rox_88 · 23-05-2014 9:02pm

I checked back on a few corrections I made in the 1911 census over a year ago and unfortunately a huge family of Tullys are still Fullys I corrected again today so I'll check back again sometime. It scares me that I could be missing something huge over one letter.

L1011 · 23-05-2014 9:13pm

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Sadly the errors I reported have not been fixed yet. Maybe I will report them again and see in a few months. But my question was mainly regarding errors on other records that you come across - i.e. I have seen Lynam entered as Synam but its not my family. Should I intrude by reporting it?

Yes! Found a critical-ish US census record on Ancestry due to someone else correcting a surname, they appeared to have zero connection. Ancestry shows all corrections which can be handy if what's written down is contentious.

Jellybaby1 · 23-05-2014 9:29pm

In that case I will make sure I report any errors I see in future. Glad you got something because of corrections.

The Kurgan · 26-05-2014 9:27pm

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

In that case I will make sure I report any errors I see in future. Glad you got something because of corrections.

Came across two errors during my own research which drove me mad for a few weeks ,
Mcgree transcribed as Magree & Carton as Carson. Reported both 1 1/2 ago but still haven't..im sure they'll get there. I had the patience to keep searching but others might give up in frustration as the census is usually first port of call.

mickmackey1 · 28-05-2014 11:28pm

Just noticed an error I reported has been corrected

It must be 2/3 years since I submitted it and remember checking back a few months later and no change, but maybe they get around to them in the end...

pinkypinky · 29-05-2014 9:34am

They have one intern on the JobBridge scheme working on them all. It's going to take him a while!

Reporting errors on census, Irish Genealogy sites etc

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