Mangled transcription

Having spent quite some time searching unsuccessfully for a burial in the Gloucestershire parish register data set at Ancestry, I started browsing the most likely register for the burial.

Eventually I found it in 1805 - 'John Savage from the workhouse' buried.

Although the surname was a bit faint it was quite readable, and on checking the BT, I found the burial was listed there too, with just his name. So why hadn't the Ancestry Search found him?

I tried again specifying the exact date and parish, but with no names, and both entries were found. The BT entry had been transcribed without the surname, and although omitting the surname from the search had been something I'd tried, I'd ended up with far too many results .

However it was the PR transcription that really took the biscuit - it had been transcribed as a baptism rather than a burial, and as 'John Workhour son of Savage Cookhorn'.

No wonder I hadn't found it using the Search!

 

Wow. That is quite a terrible transcription. Did you update it?

 

Yes, though it wasn't easy to know how to correct some bits. I submitted a correction to his surname, then I submitted another correction listing the burial date as omitted information, with an explanatory note. Then I went to the father's name and submitted a correction removing his name and leaving all the fields blank. With the BT entry it was easier and I just submitted a correction adding his surname as omitted information.

I seem to have spent a fair bit of time over the last few days submitting corrections to the Gloucestershire PRs, though at least with most of the rest I did manage to find the person by searching imaginatively. But I found a fair few entries listed as the wrong events - baptisms rather than burials or marriages etc.

 

I found another good one today, this time a baptism in 1764.

The register has:

Ann Daughter of Richd Cockle Born
June 8th and Baptised July 11​

The transcription has her as: Ann Born, with parents Richd & Cockle Born

This time I can at least sort of see how the error occurred.

(I have submitted a correction - one of seemingly hundreds I've submitted recently!)

 

I am sure there are plenty of people on Ancestry who are praising your work for the corrections, Pauline!

I think each correction can aid in bringing that “shaky leaf” onto someone who may not have found that hint in usual circumstances!