Sunshine Peuker

[ElizabethHerts]

I was searching for Sarah Purkis on the censuses and my eyes alighted on this entry.

The whole of the family are transcribed as Peuker and the head of the household as Sunshine!

https://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=uki1851&indiv=try&h=897976

:d:d:d

[maggie_4_7]

No wonder I can't find my Purkis lot :D

[Janet]

Good grief. From the typesetter's seat, I know full well the impish temptation to highlight the thanklessness of deciphering poor copy by sliding a rude sideways commentary into the transcription. But this one takes the cake! :d

[Olde Crone]

Write what you see, is the instruction given to transcribers. There must be something wrong with your eyes, is often my retort.

OC

[ElizabethHerts]

I know how difficult transcribing can be, but I do sometimes wonder where Ancestry get their transcribers from!

[ElizabethHerts]

When I transcribe and am faced with an unclear image I do supporting research to verify or disprove my opinion. I wouldn't just write something that sounds nonsensical without good justification.

[kiterunner]

I know how difficult transcribing can be, but I do sometimes wonder where Ancestry get their transcribers from!
Mostly from non-English speaking countries, I think.

[kiterunner]

When I transcribe and am faced with an unclear image I do supporting research to verify or disprove my opinion. I wouldn't just write something that sounds nonsensical without good justification.

Ancestry's transcribers (the paid ones, I mean) don't have time to do supporting research, though. I'm sure they have to do so many records per hour.

[ElizabethHerts]

Ancestry's transcribers (the paid ones, I mean) don't have time to do supporting research, though. I'm sure they have to do so many records per hour.

That's a shame. I do some transcribing for Cornwall OPC and I'm fortunate to have access to all the records for my parish, so it is easy to cross-reference.
Also, I know the common surnames for the parish very well.

[Olde Crone]

I was told that one census was out sourced to an American prison for transcription as part of the foreign aid programme. The 1911 maybe?

Yes, transcribing can be difficult but I feel that a commercial company like Ancestry should be striving for greater accuracy rather then relying on public spirited PAYING customers to correct the wildly inaccurate and plainly ridiculous transcriptions they come up with.

OC

[Kit]

I accept type what you see but that word had a lower case g (or another letter if you can't read properly) in it, whereas Sunshine does not.

I've done some transcribing for familysearch and ancestry. I was even asked to be a checker for familysearch at one point but didn't take up the offer. I stopped transcribing in the end as I got annoyed with my checker continually telling me I was wrong when I wasn't. That said, it is hard at times to read. I wonder if they zoom in to see the words better? Sometimes total gibberish makes sense on closer inspection.

[Nell]

A tricky problem - sometimes there are obvious mistakes, like Jane for James, when the census states it's a man.

On the other hand, men have been called Marion and girls Julian, so it could be right.
Sunshine Peuker is far from the weirdest name I've encountered!

Sometimes it is really difficult to decipher images. My favourite is Howard as a surname when it should be Stephens. Looking at the image, if you didn't know what it was meant to be it could be anything!

All this could have been avoided if official records had to be in capital letters with no serifs.