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.
Phil
lip 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
No one told the OCR that the last little column wasn't part of the place of birth 
One imagines John and Catherine having a quiet time together making Eradles and Barkets. 
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