27 November 2012

Two Reasons to View the Image

Thanks to the students in my "Organizing Genealogy Information" class for catching this transcription error. The screen shot below is the 1830 census enumeration for Augusta Newman that appears on  Ancestry.com  


Just looking at this transcription, one would think that the oldest male in the household was one between the ages of 10 and 14. I'll be honest and say that I rarely read these pre-1850 census transcriptions.I prefer to look at the actual image. It turns out in this case doing so is a good idea.

 Ancestry.com's transcriber left out the oldest male in the household--the tick mark can easily be seen on this part of the image below.


There are three male children in the household, but there's an older male in the household as well.

And, if you never look at the image you don't see the name right before Augusta: John Newman. The proximity of the name hints at a relationship between the two men.

You won't find that on the transcription either.