Possibly the worst transcription ever

[pinefamily]

I have seen some bad ones over the years, but this has to be one of the worst. On Ancestry, search for a 1755 death of a Tomaian Dodes in Surrey. The image is for Wimbledon St Mary.
I was going back over my notes, dotting the i's etc. when I couldn't find a burial for an ancestor I knew was there. By trawling through the images for Wimbledon, I found my "missing" ancestor, transcribed as Tomaian Dodes. The real name? Jonathan Dowdeswell!

[meekhcs]

You realise you have started something now!!
My gt grans maiden name was Conduct. Over the years I have seen some amazing transcriptions, some of which are too rude to put on here!! Many were just C followed by a mix of ? ! * etc. Made searching by wild card fun!

[Guy]

It is all very well decrying transcriptions but without seeing the original image we have no idea whether it was a fair attempt or not. It is very easy to criticise but some handwriting is very difficult (almost impossible) to transcribe.
Cheers
Guy

PS I can see why the error was made in the case of Jonathan Dowdeswell, as I was looking I saw Elizabeth Dowdeswell buried Dec. 4th 1754 was she a relative/wife?

[Guy]

To expand on my previous post as way of explanation to newcomers and individuals who may never have attempted to transcribe pages of handwriting.

There is a big difference between searching a parish register for an ancestors name and transcribing pages of entries in a register. When one is looking for ancestors the mind is not just looking for names, but is also looking for other clues such as the length of the word and the shape of the word, this is all done subconsciously. That is why an experienced researcher can quickly scan page after page of registers etc. and hone in on their ancestor as if the name has jumped out of the page at them. No matter what size the page is and what type of script is used our minds can quickly pick out identifying points to locate the names we are looking for.
I should also point out that it is not uncommon for the transcription to have been originally made from a microfilm/fiche image which could not be enlarged. Such transcriptions have frequently been attached to the image after it has been digitised, with the result that we we as users enlarge the image we wonder why the transcriber could not see the error in the transcript.

A transcriber on the other hand is attempting to read every word and letter on a page trying to interpret that particular word or letter. This thought process is often aided or sometimes confused by the common layout of the entries.
For instance a burial register could commonly be laid out as Date, Forename, Surname, Buried, the contraction of buried to bur could lead the transcriber to imagine the last letters of the surname to be the first letters of buried.

This is very similar to the false assumption our brains make when we see a tree with sources attached, it is very easy for our brains to accept that person must be the correct person rather than searching for alternatives. It has been shown when even after an error has been pointed out our minds do not want to abandon the false assumption made.
That is one reason why we should always try to get as many different sources to confirm every event rather than being content with just one or two.
Cheers
Guy

[Thunder]

In my view the entry is clearly Jonathan Dowdeswell. In my view transcribers should have a crib sheet which shows how letters are formed for the period, it was at the Public Record Office (PRO). The worst sort of transcription is having to follow transcribing (PRO/TNA have had/have this awful policy) 'as seen' even when it is clearly wrong, amazing that people can't spell London correctly. In my view 99% of all entries can be worked out, I worked for a number of years at PRO/TNA and even abbreviations can be worked out. There are a lot worse transcriptions entries, my favourite is the secretary of the Suffragettes who was transcribed as being 0 years old even though she was said to be 26 1/2 years old and the people who were transcribed even though the Census entries saying they were dead!. The whole idea of transcription is for people to find entries quickly.

[paulr1949]

This image is not the name which is mistranscribed, but almost everything else. One of my relatives was deputy governor of Dorchester Gaol

0 Lost in transcription.JPG (88.43 KiB) Viewed 4099 times

[Brunes08]

Many years ago before I was able to access actual images of documents on my computer, I was sent in completely the wrong direction. The transcription for a census return for my gt grandmother stated that she was born in Middsbr, Hampston. I imagined this was meant to be Middlesborough and Hampston a part of or a village nearby. I could find nothing of my gt grandmother using thse details. Many years later when I was able to access the correct image, I found it actually, quite clearly, stated that she was born Winsor, Hampshire. I could list plenty of poorly transcribed entries that have temporarily thrown me off course but fortunately was able to sort them all out eventually.

[Thunder]

Also the 'salicitor' and the men described as 'wife'!!, how on earth do we find things with transcriptions like these.

[AdrianBruce]

Mind you, 99.9% of the time I'll never search on the M/F or relationship items, and 98% of the time never on occupation - not least because occupation can be wrong in the original...

[Thunder]

Some of the worst transcriptions are at TNA having been just sent in from the Ministry of Defence with records for Middlesbrough (listed as Middlesborough), the Isle of Wight listed as the Isle of Wright (also on a TNA run volunteer project) and Kirkcudbright being listed as Kirkudbright. TNA don't seem to even check these descriptions before they are put on their catalogue, don't they understand that researchers need to able to find the documents!. About ten years ago TNA there were a set of 'Editorial Standards' but that seems to have gone by the wayside and anything goes, the Discovery catalogue is falling into a very poor state and researchers will suffer looking for documents that exist but cannot be found.