OCR madness .....

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SarahND
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Post by SarahND » Mon Jan 08, 2007 9:01 pm

I stumbled upon this interesting couple in the 1851 census index, both born in the "same" town, although one was in England and the other in Scotland. 8) No one told the OCR that the last little column wasn't part of the place of birth :roll: One imagines John and Catherine having a quiet time together making Eradles and Barkets. :lol:


Name:John Gordon
Age:46
Estimated birth year:abt 1805
Relationship:Head
Spouse's name:Catherine
Gender:Female
Where born:Deapt Dumb, England
Parish Number:98
Civil parish:Inverness
County:Inverness
Address:9 Logans Close
Occupation: Eradle & Barket Maker

Name:Catherine Gordon
Age:44
Estimated birth year:abt 1807
Relationship:Wife
Spouse's name:John
Gender:Female
Where born:Deapt Dumb, Invernessshire
Parish Number:98
Civil parish:Inverness
County:Inverness
Address:9 Logans Close

Regards,
Sarah

pinkshoes
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Location: Yorkshire

Post by pinkshoes » Mon Jan 08, 2007 9:30 pm

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Jings Crivvens - whit a coincidence to have two places with the same unusual name. And to think there was a market in both for Eradles and Barkets. :lol:

Has to be one of the best yet Sarah.

Best wishes
Pinkshoes

LesleyB
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Location: Scotland

Post by LesleyB » Mon Jan 08, 2007 11:46 pm

Hi Sarah
One imagines John and Catherine having a quiet time together making Eradles and Barkets.
It conjours up a wonderful Monty Pythonesque picture of domestic bliss... :lol:

Best wishes
Lesley

emanday
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Post by emanday » Mon Jan 08, 2007 11:50 pm

LesleyB wrote:Hi Sarah
One imagines John and Catherine having a quiet time together making Eradles and Barkets.
It conjours up a wonderful Monty Pythonesque picture of domestic bliss... :lol:

Best wishes
Lesley
While eating their Spam, Spam and Spam sandwiches (with Spam of course)
[b]Mary[/b]
A cat leaves pawprints on your heart
McDonald or MacDonald (some couldn't make up their mind!), Bonner, Crichton, McKillop, Campbell, Cameron, Gitrig (+other spellings), Clark, Sloan, Stewart, McCutcheon, Ireland (the surname)

SarahND
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Post by SarahND » Tue Jan 09, 2007 11:00 am

emanday wrote:
LesleyB wrote:Hi Sarah
One imagines John and Catherine having a quiet time together making Eradles and Barkets.
It conjours up a wonderful Monty Pythonesque picture of domestic bliss... :lol:

Best wishes
Lesley
While eating their Spam, Spam and Spam sandwiches (with Spam of course)
When the census enumerator comes galloping up on his horse, uninvited and unannounced, arms full of lupins... Seems like I've seen that one before :lol:

DavidWW
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Post by DavidWW » Tue Jan 09, 2007 11:23 am

I'm not quite sure how many listeners would have understood the reference, but the presenter of the first Digging Up Your Roots last Sunday on BBC Radio Scotland, Claire, at one point referred to the Registrar General of Scotland, in the studio as an expert for this first programme, as today's "Emperor Augustus" :shock:

David

DavidWW
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Post by DavidWW » Tue Apr 03, 2007 9:21 am

AnneM wrote:Hi again

In 1851 my ancestor Philip Assur appears as Philip Assum a clesk. Well we get the general idea but poor old Philip Alex Lucius born Stutgard (sic) Germany appears as a Journeyman Tippe Founder Bert Ulent.
Untouched by human hand!!!

Anne

Yet further down that search it gets Messenger at Arms perfectly correct and indexes someone else as a Sambourer!!!!!!!
I was looking for something in this thread and came across this one, but couldn't see any reply/clarification.

Phillip was a Journeyman Copper Founder

I'll admit that the "Copper" bit is difficult to read, and my reading is as much based on that's the only metal that I can think of that fits, but the rest of the nonsense calls into question the basic training given to the transcriber in terms of understanding the content and layout of the enumeration book page (never mind quality control).

The "Bert Ulent" bit comes from the fact that there wasn't enough room in the birthplace column to enter "Brit Subject - Germany - Stutgard", - it's perfectly clear, - there's no excuse for not seeing it as that, and rather than squeezing 2 lines into the birthplace box, the enumerator started his single line a bit to the left in the occupation column.

So either we have a human being who has been insufficiently trained so doesn't realise that an entry can spill over the column borders sometimes, or we have a machine doing exactly what it has been programmed to do, - "reading" the text in a precisely defined area, so sees the bit that has spilt over - "Brit. Su" and interprets that as "Bert Ulent". There's a diagonal check stroke added by a clerk which may have led to some confusion..................

I make no judgement one way or the other, but, either way, as ever, it's worrying.

David

SarahND
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Post by SarahND » Tue Apr 03, 2007 4:13 pm

Hi David,
Thanks for clarifying that Bert Ulent. As you say... worrying. A human could see right away that it had spilled over the line, but a machine is only doing what it has been programmed to do. :?
Regards,
Sarah

DavidWW
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Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 9:47 pm

Post by DavidWW » Tue Apr 03, 2007 4:47 pm

SarahND wrote:Hi David,
Thanks for clarifying that Bert Ulent. As you say... worrying. A human could see right away that it had spilled over the line, but a machine is only doing what it has been programmed to do. :?
Regards,
Sarah
A properly trained human would :!: :twisted:

David

SarahND
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Post by SarahND » Tue Apr 03, 2007 4:52 pm

DavidWW wrote:A properly trained human would :!: :twisted:
I would think that any human who had ever filled out a form would. The human eye can interpret things even in the midst of spurious lines, etc. that it is difficult to program a machine to extract from the background "noise"
Here's to humans! [cheers]
Sarah