Comments on: How we restored more than 16,500 water-damaged records from the 1851 Census

By: Chagoi

Chagoi — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 11:12:35 +0000

The title of this piece is “How we restored more than 16,500 water-damaged records …”. On Ancestry’s ‘homepage’ for the 1851 Census under the heading “Known problems with the 1851 Census,” it is claimed they salvaged 165,000 names. Does one so-called record equal ten names, or is there a simple typo somewhere?

Like #5 jaykay I can’t find my lot, although in my case I KNOW they’re there and I really wanted to see them for myself. Both the MLFHS and FindMyPast have them listed in their indexes, and I have a transcript showing the whole family’s full names, ages, occupations and birthplaces so the page must have been legible to some degree.

I note that the list of Salford Enumeration Districts jumps from District 1m to District 1u. Does that mean that not all of these water-damaged pages have been put on-line yet? Do the Districts 1n-1t exist?

Must say that it’s been fascinating looking at the enumeration district descriptions. Some of them have a tiny piece of a map stuck to the page showing exactly what streets were to be covered.

By: jaykay

jaykay — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 02:10:31 +0000

Not true to say that what was available before was a “big fat ZERO” – A transcription of these records has been available through Manchester & Lancashire Family History Society for some years. It was published first on CD, then through the FamilyHistoryOnline website (now defunct) of the Federation of Family History Societies, and is currently available on one of the opposition websites. The work was undertaken by volunteers from that society, firstly at the Public Record Office (PRO) in Chancery Lane, London, and later at the PRO now The National Archives at Kew also in London.

Furthermore whilst the technology currently available, and the digital images produced by Ancestry, is much more sophisticated than was available to MLfhs, ultraviolet light was certainly used for much of the work which could not be read using natural or electric light.

It is also rather disingenuous to suggest that Ancestry have somehow completed the task: not quite true as much of what they have now produced and indexed was already transcribed – apparently with more accuracy. In any case some of this census will always be “missing” as the original documents are in such a dreadful condition.

I must agree that the availability of digital images is a definite advantage, and much to be praised – any faults of indexers can now be re-interpreted by users. Which is all to the good. This kind of technology is far too expensive for the average family history society, and any service provider, such as Ancestry, who can fund such projects, is also deserving of praise. Pity those providers who don’t use their subscriptions to provide digital images of originals, despite charging high amounts for access.

Unfortunately, even with these images, I still cannot find great grandfather in this census – another lost soul!

By: JUY

JUY — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 02:43:23 +0000

Considering that these documents and the information there on were effectively lost, not only to the UK as a whole, but the whole world and ancestry have found away to give us back the data that was lost i think the above statement is unfair. yes the transcriptions might not be the best but it is a GREAT IMPROVEMENT to what we had before from these DAMAGED UNREADABLE DOCUMENTS and that was a big fat ZERO.

praise should be give to their ternasity and persistence to give back this slice of history.

well done ancestry

By: bromaelor

bromaelor — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 15:00:13 +0000

Amazing! They take all that time and effort to restore these census pages and then Ancestry produce another shoddy piece of transcription!

By: Tweets that mention How we restored more than 16,500 water-damaged records from the 1851 Census -- Topsy.com

Thu, 25 Nov 2010 19:08:19 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Old PostcardsEtc and Photos Reunited, Ancestry.co.uk. Ancestry.co.uk said: How we restored more than 16,500 water-damaged records from the 1851 Census: Authored by Jack Reese from Ancestr… http://bit.ly/dKlrR3 [...]

By: Mac McCree

Mac McCree — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 18:19:04 +0000

Wow,a fascinating read is a bit of an understatement to say the least, congratulations to the whole team who have made this possible, I can see why Jack is working with Ancestry, one look at his impressive CV would be enough in my estimation for any him to succeed at anything he decides to do, I now know who to call when I have a problem with my box brownie.

Look at this and see why Jack is where he is!

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jackreese

best wishes,
Mac