Census records with mis-transcibed names

By Raelene S on Mon, 05/20/2024 - 04:37

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How does one cite a 1851 Census record form England that is mis transcribed?  I have several with different problems with the individuals names.  For example:


1861 census of England, St Mary Parish, Nottingham, ED 4, folio 70, page 23, Richard MOWBRAY; digital images, ancestry.co.uk (http://ancestry.co.uk); citing PRO RG 9/2457.  

This is what I have as a citation, however, Ancestry has the name as MOWBRAY, both on the image and on the transcript page.  So I have recorded the name as MOWBRAY (it should be MOESBY)

But I have other records where the name on the image is very clearly the correct name but the transcript page has been mis-transcribed, eg BRITTON as on the image has been transcribed as TOPLIS.  I used BRITTON in the citation.  Is this correct?  I also use the spelling as is shown on the image because that is what anyone would be looking for if they were following my citations.  There are many numerous variations of spelling for one of my ancestors, so many different variations on the citations.  

Submitted byEEon Tue, 05/21/2024 - 09:52

Raelene, have you seen the following at EE4 7.25?

CORRECTING ERRORS
When a website provider indexes or abstracts a census, if its reading misidentifies a person, you may use the correct name in your citation. However, to ensure the name is relocatable in the database where it is misidentified, you should note the misidentification in an editorial comment.

In your example above, you have not identified a database. That information should be included in your citation—both the title of the database and the exact URL of the database's landing page where you queried for the name. Adding that to your citation would yield this:

1861 census of England, St Mary Parish, Nottingham, ED 4, folio 70, page 23, Richard "MOWBRAY" (should be Moesby); digital images, "1861 England Census," Ancestry (http://ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/8767); citing PRO RG 9/2457.   

(The URL extension that I've given above is the one that Ancestry presents to me as a user of Ancestry.com. It might differ for those who use Ancestry.co.uk.)

EE's census chapter has several examples of citing Ancestry's census entries and images.  EE 7.48 specifically covers UK censuses, with examples for images and databases at Ancestry and FindMyPast. The examples differ because the websites differ in their architecture. There are also options for emphasizing the original census or the database, depending upon whether the online provider includes sufficient information for the original census to be fully cited

Also note that the name of the website is Ancestry. The .co.uk is part of the website's URL, but not its name/title. The title of the website, as with any standalone publication, is placed in italics so that users of our citation will know that those exact words represent the publication's title. (EE 2.27 Citing Titles: Basic Rules)

You also ask:

But I have other records where the name on the image is very clearly the correct name but the transcript page has been mis-transcribed, eg BRITTON as on the image has been transcribed as TOPLIS.  I used BRITTON in the citation.  Is this correct? 

This common problem is a major reason why our citations make a clear distinction between the original document and the website provider's database/index. We handle it this way:

  • In the layer in which we cite the original, we present the name exactly as it appears in the document, with a parenthetical or bracketed correction if needed. 
  • In the layer in which we cite the database, we cite the name as it appears in that database, with a parenthetical or bracketed correction if needed.