TALBOT-L Archives

From: "Richard D. Reddick" <>
Subject: [TALBOT] Census transcription error
Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2001 17:50:26 -0700

Richard,

I wanted to pass on an instance that I have noticed in the 1880 USA Federal
Census Transcription.
Please pass this on to the lists you belong too.

While perusing a township in Wisconsin, I noticed a pattern began to
emerge. They had reversed the first and last names in the
transcription. The problem may have been in the original
census transcription, the census taker reversed it and the LDS did not
correct it.

For example my ancestor was listed as:

van hoosen EDWARD
Nora EDWARD etc
It should have been indexed as
Edward VAN HOOSEN
Nora VAN HOOSEN

I just got lucky and found them as I knew they were in the township but the
search function wasn't finding them.

My point here is this:
I think this problem may be widespread in the transcription. It would be a
real good idea if you can't find someone you know should be there to
reverse the names in the search and you might be surprised to find them. I
found most of the Fountain, Juneau, WI transcription to have this problem.
Tiffany

This thread:

• [TALBOT] Census transcription error by "Richard D. Reddick" <>