1851 & 1861 Scottish Censuses on Ancestry.com today ....

Susanna · Post by **Susanna** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:03 am

Hi all -

I got an email from Ancestry.com today that these censuses were "coming soon" - but found that they are actually posted today. I spot checked and was able to find a record I have from SP for each year - but there are some typos (like "Drymer" instead of Drymen" and "portes" instead of "porter").

Happy searching!

mmuir · Post by **mmuir** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 8:46 am

Cool, This is just what I was looking for. I found a bunch that I didn't have before

Post by **SarahND** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 10:45 am

Some of the "typos" are way out there...

In 1851 James Giles' wife Clementina is indexed as "Clemeulina," and his profession is "R S A Portrail & Landlcape Paiuter" (i.e. R.S.A. Portrait & Landscape Painter"...) Looks as if this was done by some sort of automatic character recognition, since surely a human would have tried to make sense out of it? Fortunately, you can search without a surname, with only approximate age, birthplace or whatever. So don't give up if you can't find anyone with what seems like a straightforward name!! Keep trying other bits of info until you find one that was indexed correctly!

Regards,
Sarah

P.S. I see that in 1861 he was: "Royal & Cottish Academician Portrart Ainnial & Landscape Pointer"

i.e. "Royal Scottish Academician Portrait, Animal & Landscape Painter"

DavidWW · Post by **DavidWW** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 12:31 pm

SarahND wrote:Some of the "typos" are way out there...

In 1851 James Giles' wife Clementina is indexed as "Clemeulina," and his profession is "R S A Portrail & Landlcape Paiuter" (i.e. R.S.A. Portrait & Landscape Painter"...) Looks as if this was done by some sort of automatic character recognition, since surely a human would have tried to make sense out of it? Fortunately, you can search without a surname, with only approximate age, birthplace or whatever. So don't give up if you can't find anyone with what seems like a straightforward name!! Keep trying other bits of info until you find one that was indexed correctly!

Regards,
Sarah

P.S. I see that in 1861 he was: "Royal & Cottish Academician Portrart Ainnial & Landscape Pointer" i.e. "Royal Scottish Academician Portrait, Animal & Landscape Painter"

Now there's an interesting thought - automatic character recognition software, aka Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software, - as I have major difficulties in believing that Indian sub-continent, or SE Asian contractors could have come up with either "R S A Portrail & Landlcape Paiuter", or "Royal & Cottish Academician Portrart Ainnial & Landscape Pointer", - "Clemeulina" I wouldn't totally have ruled out on the basis of previous experience, but those two descriptions are so typical of OCR mis-interpretations.

And that opens up a whole new can of worms as regards given names and surnames. I mean, for example, that human beings, whether they be in the Indian sub-continent, or SE Asia would have look-up tables to consult !!

Never mind marital status, ages, relation to Head of Household, occupation, and place of birth !! Somehow I feel that this story is going to run and run

David

Post by **emanday** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 12:58 pm

Have to say that even top of the range OCR software, and I've used a few of them in the past, can come up with some real howlers, even from clearly typed documents!

The real problem is that it should only ever be regarded as a tool that requires experienced human intervention. The typos described would indicate that no such "experience" is being employed

DavidWW · Post by **DavidWW** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 1:04 pm

emanday wrote:Have to say that even top of the range OCR software, and I've used a few of them in the past, can come up with some real howlers, even from clearly typed documents!

The real problem is that it should only ever be regarded as a tool that requires experienced human intervention. The typos described would indicate that no such "experience" is being employed

That's certainly the way that I'm thinking, even although I'd admit that the sample is tiny for the moment, but I just cannot see that that properly trained folk in the Indian sub-continent, or SE Asia would come up with "R S A Portrail & Landlcape Paiuter", or "Royal & Cottish Academician Portrart Ainnial & Landscape Pointer".

Such errors are just so very typical of the output from OCR software!

David

Kathy · Post by **Kathy** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 1:30 pm

Source info from Ancestry, but does not say how/where it was transcribed.

Kathy

Source Information:
Ancestry.com. 1841 Scotland Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: MyFamily.com, Inc., 2006. Original data: 1841 Scotland Census. Edinburgh, Scotland: General Register Office for Scotland. Reels 1-151.

Source Information:
Ancestry.com. 1851 Scotland Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: MyFamily.com, Inc., 2006. Original data: Scotland. 1851 Scotland Census. Reels 1-217. General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Source Information:
Ancestry.com. 1861 Scotland Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: MyFamily.com, Inc., 2006. Original data: Scotland. 1861 Scotland Census.. Reels 1-150. General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Post by **SarahND** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 2:10 pm

emanday wrote:The real problem is that it should only ever be regarded as a tool that requires experienced human intervention. The typos described would indicate that no such "experience" is being employed

Yes, no human, whatever their native language, would come up with those kinds of errors. So... thinking about how to search requires a new set of strategies! Close your eyes and try to imagine you are an OCR program...

Sarah

JustJean · Post by **JustJean** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:15 pm

Jean

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:23 pm

Oooh Sarah !

My mind has come up with

Drunken spider
Inkpot (blue ink )
Blue paper
Friday night spiderly stroll
Trail resembling Secretary Hand

.................scanner asking is this text or an image?
................. Text

You really mean that

................. Help

Mummy (wailing)

................. sound of blowing fuse

Russell