Is he John or a Jonathan?

[Katie]

I have been working on my wounded lists the last few days and I have been cross referencing the soldiers on the National Archives Documents online in order to obtain their full names. While I was doing this I sent off a couple of errors I came across, a Tom recorded as Ian. A incorrect regimental number which they thanked me for sending, and they asked me to send any other mistakes I come across. (See reply)

Dear Kathy Donaldson,

Thank you for your email.

If you do comes across any transcriptions issues in the future please do let us know so we display the correct information on our website. It will help others in their research as well. Please be aware that if the information was incorrectly recorded on the original medal index card we would not be able to change our online description.

We have correct the regiment number for Samuel Jones and changed it to 14530. The changes made will be viewable online within the next few weeks.
If you have any further problems please don't hesitate to contact us.
Yours sincerely,

Discovery Downloads Direct Team


Ok! don't mind doing that because we all want the information that is available for WW1 soldiers to be as accurate as possible. What I find unacceptable is, whoever transcribed these medal cards have not adhered to the reply above.

For example:-

I have the following soldiers reported wounded

South Lancashire Regiment Private John 1156 Comber recorded as Jonathan Comber

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.u ... 64&x=0&y=0

I checked his medal card on Ancestry and he is John Comber

Royal Munster Fusiliers Private John 893 Bratt Recorded as Jonathan Bratt

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.u ... 93&x=0&y=0

Checked his medal card on Ancestry and he is John Bratt.

Now I know I call Ancestry for errors and mistakes, but how can anyone transcribe a name as Jonathan when he is recorded as John on a original record??

So if anyone is looking for a John who served in WW1 on Documents online be aware he could be recorded as Jonathan. Hope this makes sense.

[MaryA]

I am glad you got a good response from the National Archives and that hopefully they will bring this to the attention of their own transcribers and perhaps make for fewer errors in the future.

As for the John/Jonathan error, if you have seen the Medal Cards then you know they state John, but have you actually seen the other documents, I mean other actual images, on the National Archives that might say Jonathan? If not then it could be possible that their official names were Jonathan, just that they were known as John and the National Archives have matched them up - although I do think going to that extra trouble would be a bit far fetched.

Now you have a friendly contact there, would you think it a good idea to ask them to check and make sure for you?

[MaryA]

PS Did you know that John Comber also has the Silver War Badge,
Name: John Comber
Discharge Unit: Depot. South Lancashire Regiment
Regiment Number: 11564
Rank: Pte.
Badge Number: 400871
Unit: Infantry (Shrewsbury)
Piece: 3092
List Number: J 0401/2-0800/1
Record Group: WO
Record Class: 329

[Katie]

Mary I am checking the actual entries on Ancestry and they are definitively John. I don't know who carried out the indexing of these medal cards at the NA whether it was their own staff or another Organisation something to ask when I get down there. Here are another 3.

King's Liverpool Regiment Private John O 16953 Boundy Recorded as Jonathan O Boundy
King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment Corporal John 8026 Birchall Recorded as Jonathan Birchall
King's Liverpool Regiment Private John C 30167 Crawford Recorded as Jonathan C Crawford

So whoever did the transcribing must have liked Jonathan rather than John LOL

[Bertieone]

Katie,
It looks like whoever done the transcription thought John was short for Jonathan, as is Joe for Joseph. Thanks for the heads up,
Bertrice

[Katie]

Just had a lovely telephone conversation with the Documents online team. And explained to him about the John/Jonathan errors. I gave him John Boundy and he checked. You can see that it is definitly a H but it can be mistook for a N. I agree with that but I pointed out to him that they are going to have to go through all those recorded as Jonathan on their site and cross check the cards to see if a error has been made. I can give those for our area 17 in total but what about the whole country had a bit of a laugh about it. Some poor worker is going to be very busy.

[MaryA]

Some poor worker is going to be very busy.

And so they should be, should have been better checked in the first place.

[Katie]

He He can't stop laughing about this. Wanted to get on the Internet to earn some dosh. When we were doing the CLIP project we had a transcriber and a checker.

Gave the chap a tip on how to make it a bit easier on themselves I estimate there are 11,537 Jonathans on their Documents online. They have 20 months to complete Ha Ha so funny!!!

Sent of my Jonathans so thats 17 less

[alcavtay]

When I was checking on the CLIP project I got quite a few people who insisted on interpreting place names and putting in the full name, I suppose they thought that it would be helpful as Lpool was obviously Liverpool etc but I can't see why anyone would think John must be Jonathon!

I wonder if the transcriber was called Jonathon?

[Katie]

This is the total of errors I have come across on the Documents online Website. I was speaking to John Wood at WDYTYA and he says he doesn't know who carried out the transcribing of these cards. Ancestry done their own indexing which is more accurate that the Documents online transcriptions.

Regiment Rank Forename Regt No Surname Documents Online Transcription Errors

King's Liverpool Regiment Private Frederick 22717 Hinton Regiment No recorded as 22714
King's Liverpool Regiment Private James 26157 Rostron Regiment No recorded as 26154
King's Liverpool Regiment Lance-Corporal Harold 17950 Spence Regiment No recorded as 14950
Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers Sergeant Charles 27726 Griffiths No Regiment No record online
Royal Irish Fusiliers Sergeant Charles 30241 Griffiths No Regiment No recorded online
Royal Dublin Fusiliers Private John 24679 Murray Regiment No recorded as 2469
Irish Guards Private Matthew 6614 Gornall Regiment No Recorded as 4414
Cheshire Regiment Private Percy S W/806 Gaskin Regiment No recorded as 8061
Cheshire Regiment Private William 10622 Griffiths Regiment No recorded as 1062
Cheshire Regiment Private Francis E 10841 Hughes Regiment No recorded as 1084
King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment Private James 13236 Flinn Regt No recorded as 1323
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Frank 21428 Rouse Regt No recorded as 1428
Loyal North Lancashire Regiment Private Wilson Henry 14258 Pollitt Recorded as William H Pollitt
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Frederick 18061 Jackson Regt No recorded as 18 (incomplete)
Labour Corps Private Frederick 223156 Jackson Regt No recorded as 22 (incomplete)
Royal Warwickshire Regiment Private George 20855 Wilding Regt No recorded as 208555
Grenadier Guards Private James 19902 Leach No Record on Documents online/ On Ancestry
Cheshire Regiment Private Arthur P 14246 Kegg 1246 Incomplete Medal Card
Royal Army Medical Corps Private Sidney 1292 Harrison Recorded as Sidney S Harrison on Documents online
Loyal North Lancashire Regiment Private William 19595 Kelly Regt No recorded as 1995
Loyal North Lancashire Regiment Private Patrick 13679 O'Shaughnessy O'Shaughnessey
South Lancashire Regiment Lance-Corporal Hugh 17647 Wilson Regt No recorded as 1764
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Lancelot P 21744 Black Regt no recorded as 21704
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Algernon F 17812 Daniels Name recorded as Algermor F Daniels
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Evan R 5231 Almond His Regiment is 1/7th King's Liverpool. F.R. Evans
King's Liverpool Regiment Private John 11544 Bahan Recorded as Jonathan Bahan
King's Liverpool Regiment Private William 14075 Webb Regt No recorded as 14076
King's Liverpool Regiment Private William 26172 Lawson Regt No recorded as 26772
Machine Gun Corps Private Henry 28294 Grafton Regt No 2829 Incomplete
South Lancashire Regiment Private William 12794 Allen Regiment No recorded as 10794
South Lancashire Regiment Private John 16049 Grogan Regiment No recorded as 160
Royal Field Artillery Sergeant James C 21128 Parkinson Recorded as J.C. Parkinson
Cheshire Regiment Private Harold 16843 Waring Regt No recorded as 168403
King's Liverpool Regiment Private John 30933 Forshaw Regt No as 3093
King's Liverpool Regiment Private John 12653 O'Flaherty Surname recorded as O'Flanherty
Cameron Highlanders Private James S/18219 Watterson S/1821 on Medal Card
Royal Sussex Regiment Private William G/5819 Williams G/581 on Medal Card
Cheshire Regiment Private John W/103 Cooper Recorded as Jonathan Cooper
Cheshire Regiment Private Patrick 461 Daley 467 on Medal Card
Cheshire Regiment Private Richard W/346 Powell W/946 on Medal Card
East Lancashire Regiment Private James 21652 Kirby J. Kirby on Medal Card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private James 10813 McGregor Regt No recorded as 103103
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Robert 266636/4336 Seddon 4336 is his original no. On the top of his card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private William J 4213 Veitch Number recorded as 4215
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Alexander 266109/3471 Wilson 3471 his original number on top of his card
South Lancashire Regiment Private William 20264 Pye Recorded under Lancashire Regiment
King's Liverpool Regiment Private James 13707 Hogg Number recorded as 15707
King's Liverpool Regiment Sergeant John Edward 3821 Aindow Recorded as Johnathan
South Lancashire Regiment Sergeant John E 14732 Craven Recorded as Jonathan E Craven
Royal Field Artillery Gunner Jabez 84935 Harris Recorded as Number 84934
Royal Welsh Fusiliers Lance-Corporal Hugh 23966 Devine 2396 (Incomplete)
East Lancashire Regiment Private Jethro 13128 Pierce Recorded as Jechro Pierce
Cheshire Regiment Private William 28761 Murphy Regt No recorded as 2876
Royal Garrison Artillery Gunner Joseph 3R/7037 Ainslie Regt No SR/7037
South Lancashire Regiment Private Edward 12022 Bebe Regt No 1202
South Lancashire Regiment Private Thomas 16735 Liptrot 16733 on Medal Card
South Lancashire Regiment Private Daniel J 2056 Lynch 21056 on Medal Card
South Lancashire Regiment Private Frank F 1740 Stephens Recorded as 17401
South Lancashire Regiment Lance-Corporal Bennett 21342 Robinson Recorded as Bernard Robinson
London Regiment Private Thomas A 5854 Chambers 585 (Incomplete)
Shropshire Light Infantry Private Richard 20018 Blanchard No recorded on Discovery/On Ancestry
South Lancashire Regiment Private John 16269 McHugh 1626 on Medal Card
South Lancashire Regiment Private John 17302 Thomas Medal card states 17312 on top of his card is his correct No which is 17302
Royal Welsh Fusiliers Lance-Corporal Richard 31831 Devine 3183 Incomplete No
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Ernest 22253 Skelhorne Ernest Skelhorn 2253
Royal Field Artillery Acting-Bombardier James 105342 Alty No Recorded as 105340
King's Liverpool Regiment Private George William 3/11672 Parrott Medal Card 3/711672
East Lancashire Regiment Private Harry 17386 Gordon Harry Cordon on Medal Card
Cheshire Regiment Private George W 12451 Smith 12457 on Medal Card
Royal Sussex Regiment Private William G/5819 Williams G/581 on Medal Card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private John 29691 McGregor 19691 on Medal Card
South Lancashire Regiment Private Hugh 13586 Watters No recorded as 1358
South Lancashire Regiment Private James 21544 Deary 2154 Incomplete
King's Liverpool Regiment Corporal Frank 17222 Williams 7222
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Frederick 15739 Beaumont 15759 on Medal Card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private John Henry 21454 Brandwood Recorded as Jonathan H Brandwood
King's Liverpool Regiment Private David 25502 Brundritt Brundrit
King's Liverpool Regiment Sergeant James 15058 Buchanan 15053
King's Liverpool Regiment Private John 18432 Cooper Jonathan Cooper
King's Liverpool Regiment Private John 22118 Hodgkinson 22116 on Medal Card
King's Liverpool Regiment Lance-Corporal Thomas H 17689 Parry 12689 on Medal Card
Cheshire Regiment Private Leonard 25880 Seagreaves Leonard Seagraves
Royal Garrison Artillery Sergeant John 13854 Hollerinn 13856 on Medal Card
Cheshire Regiment Private John 27517 Creevy John Creevey
Royal Field Artillery Gunner Thomas Alfred 19250 Porter Thomas R Porter on Medal Card
The Buffs (East Kent Regiment) Private Alfred G/337 Mills C/337
South Lancashire Regiment Private Richard 19290 Chamberlain 1929-Incomplete Medal Card
18th King's Liverpool Regiment Private Cecil R 16901 Freeman Regiment No missed off
20th King's Liverpool Regiment Private Thomas 22018 Blundell Not recorded on Documents online
King's Liverpool Regiment Lance-Corporal Patrick J 20672 Field Patrick T Field
King's Liverpool Regiment Private John 22774 Miller 22444
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Alexander F 16326 Palmer Regiment No wrote on top of his card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private William 16398 Squire 163985On Medal Card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Francis J 19/32658 White 19/326589- On Medal Card
South Wales Borderers Private Percy 23679 Cassidy No recorded on top of his card
South Wales Borderers Private Harry 25862 Harrison 28862
Cheshire Regiment Private Evan 17301 Stockton Egan Stockton on Medal card
Cheshire Regiment Lance-Corporal Charles J 19562 Williamson 1956 Incomplete card
Royal Engineers Sapper Thomas 426694 Woods 426(Incomplete)94
Norfolk Regiment Private Leo 24920 Briscoe 2492
Royal Welsh Fusiliers Private Francis Richard Francis 4404 Jarwood Recorded as Francis R F Jarvis
King's Liverpool Regiment Private George Kendrick 3505 Ashley Recorded as George A Ashley
King's Liverpool Regiment Sergeant John 7919 Crane Jonathan Crane
King's Liverpool Regiment Private John O 16953 Boundy Recorded as Jonathan O Boundy
King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment Corporal John 8026 Birchall Recorded as Jonathan Birchall
King's Liverpool Regiment Private John C 30167 Crawford Recorded as Jonathan C Crawford
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Thomas S 22670 Derbyshire Recorded under number 2267
King's Liverpool Regiment Private John 35545 Bagshaw Recorded as Jonathan Bagshaw
South Lancashire Regiment Corporal John 240718 Birch Recorded as Jonathan Birch
Royal Garrison Artillery Gunner John 25/292021 Bilsbarrow Recorded as Jonathan Bilsbarrow
King's Liverpool Regiment Sergt Frederick John 18248 Cooper Recorded as Frederick Jonathan Cooper
King's Liverpool Regiment Private John 30096 Cousins Recorded as Jonathan Cousins
Worcestershire Regiment Lance-Corpl Jonathan 12178 Davies Can you check this entry
Cheshire Regiment Private George W/194 Wilson W/19
Cheshire Regiment Private Albert A W/873 Bedson W/879
South Lancashire Regiment Private John 11564 Comber recorded as Jonathan Comber
Royal Welsh Fusiliers Corporal Evan Caradoc 31759 Jones Recorded as Evan Carador Jones
Royal Munster Fusiliers Private John 893 Bratt Recorded as Jonathan Bratt
Royal Army Medical Corps Private James 34263 Williams 34283
King's Liverpool Regiment Sergeant Joseph 8644 Arden 8647
Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers Private John 16297 Cowan Recorded as Jonathan J Cowan
King's Liverpool Regiment Sergeant Joseph Edwin 21711 Crebbin 2174 on Medal Card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Harold Frederick 17642 Leese Harold E Leese on Medal Card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Arthur 22864 Todd D/22564 on Medal Card
South Wales Borderers Private Samuel 22792 Pinnington Number wrote on top of card
Machine Gun Corps Private James 15364 Kehoe 15264
South Wales Borderers Private James 28307 Cavanagh 283072
Manchester Regiment Private John Thomas 52898 Harper John J Harper
Royal Garrison Artillery Gunner Thomas 362399 Hayes 362099
Border Regiment Private Thomas 28799 Edwards 2879
Grenadier Guards Private Richard 28749 Blaydes 28744
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Silvester 13671 Dempsey 1367 Incomplete
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Harry 21218 Anderson 2121
King's Liverpool Regiment Lance-Sergeant Francis 37573 Brindley 37575
King's Liverpool Regiment Private James 381131 Cooper 38113
King's Liverpool Regiment Private John 22024 Brash Jonathan Brash
King's Liverpool Regiment Private John E 2378 Burke Recorded as 2375
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Albert 23921 Chapman 2392
King's Liverpool Regiment Private David 3800 Courtie Courtice-3800 missed of
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Harold 3517 Davies Number missed of wrote of top of card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Albert 31673 Evans 3167 (Incomplete)
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Robert 18454 Halsall 18452
King's Liverpool Regiment Private George 22788 Murphy 22488 on Medal Card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Alexander G 34468 Paul Alexoman G
King's Liverpool Regiment Private William 23840 Tait 2384 on Medal Card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Henry 22566 Warburton Henry Warberton on Medal Card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Joseph 22580 Williams 22530
Royal Warwickshire Regiment Private Arnold R 260158 Brown 26015
Lancashire Fusiliers Private Richmond 39643 Dixon Richardson Dixon
Gloucestershire Regiment Private Thomas 38494 Holding 30494
King's Liverpool Regiment Corporal William 356584 Armstrong 256584
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Thomas Cecil 359628 Sowden 369628
Royal Field Artillery Driver Stanley L/3454 Broome L/345
Royal Garrison Artillery Gunner George 362361 Andrews 362
King's Liverpool Regiment Private George Kendrick 3505 Ashley George E Ashley
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Frank 27184 Ellis Recorded as Frederick Ellis
King's Liverpool Regiment Sergeant William N 1386 Fortune 1086
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Walter 3114 Johnson Number omitted
Labour Corps Private Walter 130376 Johnson Number omitted
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Peter Henry 4594 Knowles Number on top of card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private John Victor 1988 McWilliam John W McWilliam
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Charles W 4316 Rigby 4316 wrote on top of card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private William James 3879 Stephenson 3879 recorded on top of card
South Lancashire Regiment Private George W 4090 Esp 409
Machine Gun Corps Private Henry 22420 Rigby 22720
King's Liverpool Regiment Private William 4195 Scott 4195 on top of card
King's Liverpool Regiment attached Trench Mortar Battery Private Matthew H 2555 Maxfield Matthus
Royal Field Artillery Gunner Irvine G 690309 Gourley Irwine
Machine Gun Corps Lance-Corporal Robert Stanley 59402 Corkill 5940
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Samuel K 265310 Oliver Regiment no 265310 on top of card
Royal Field Artillery Driver George 686406 Morton 686406 on top of card
Royal Welsh Fusiliers Private George H 345368 Adams Royal Irish Fusiliers
South Lancashire Regiment Lance-Corporal Robert 21464 Corrigan 21454
Royal Field Artillery Driver Richard 18703 Foster 15703
South Lancashire Regiment Private Jonathan 242213 Foster 2422 (Incomplete Medal Card)
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Ernest 1726 Burnett 1726 wrote on top of card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private James 2499 Byrne Bryne
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Joseph 2388 Byrne 2388 wrote on top of his card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Fred H 5376 Fallon 5376 o top of card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Arthur 5112 Freeman No Record on Documents online/ On Ancestry
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Arthur 356557 Freeman No Record on Documents online/ On Ancestry
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Cyril F 6166 Inston 6166 wrote on top of card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Harold 5840 Irwin 5840 wrote on top of card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Thomas A 2921 Keegan 2921 wrote on top of card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Henry Kenyon 5838 Morley 5838
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Henry Kenyon 357072 Morley 857072
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Robert 5954 Murray Wrote on top of card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private James 4208 Neilson Wrote on top of card
King's Liverpool Regiment Sergeant Thomas 2258 Oliver Wrote on top of card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private George Thomas 22202 Orme George J Orme
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Clarence Henry 5256 Stephens Also Served with
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Frank 4900 Stopforth Wrote on top of card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Harold 1974 Sumner Number missed off
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Herbert J 23842 Taggart 33842
14th King's Liverpool Regiment Private Albert 18397 Knowles No Record on Documents online/ On Ancestry
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Reginald 2619 Vernon 2619 on top of card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Thomas L 5260 Williams 5260 missed of card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private William 4251 Williams 4251 missed off
Royal Engineers Sapper John T 6373 Coombes Recorded as Jonathan
Royal Engineers Corporal Austin Lee 6870 Greenall 6870 on top of card
Royal Engineers Sergeant Edward 6787 McDonagh E. McDonagh
Loyal North Lancashire Regiment Private Patrick 4630 O'Brien Number on top of card
King's Liverpool Regiment Private James 13707 Hogg 15707
South Lancashire Regiment Sergeant David 200865 Caddick No Record on Documents online/ On Ancestry
Army Cyclist Corps Private William H 13813 Lyon 13873
King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment Private James 11665 Povey 4665
Royal Field Artillery Gunner Roderick James 220723 Dean 22072 (Incomplete)
Royal Army Medical Corps Private Alex 36854 Foley 3685
Machine Gun Corps Corpl James 101001 Monks 10001 (Incomplete)
Royal Garrison Artillery Gunner Ernest 62361 Forshaw 6236
Royal Garrison Artillery Sergeant John 14444 Stoddart Stoddard
Royal Field Artillery Gunner Thomas 675493 Corlett 67549
King's Liverpool Regiment Sergeant James 202171 Bond 20271
Scots Guards Private James 14563 Courtney 1456 (Incomplete)
Welsh Regiment Private William 61021 Brown 61027
Royal Field Artillery Gunner George E 136045 Jackson 13604
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Thomas 4664 Shields 4664 wrote on top of card
Royal Welsh Fusiliers Corporal William 28352 Sheen 25352 on Medal Card
Royal Field Artillery Driver Joseph Charles L/18497 Mathews L/15497
Royal Scots Fusiliers Private Thomas 20668 Dempsey 2066 (Incomplete)
South Lancashire Regiment Private Thomas A 28622 Lowe 25622
King's Liverpool Regiment Private William 27731 Andrews 2773
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Albert D 265853 Prescott Regiment and number on top of card
Grenadier Guards Private John 29431 Toner Number no recorded
Royal Field Artillery Gunner Ambrose G 696490 Jones 69649
Loyal North Lancashire Regiment Acting-Sergeant Thomas 34470 Martlew 34470 on top of card
Labour Corps Private George W 51373 Rimmer 51375
Labour Corps Private William 474214 Gaston 474(Incomplete)
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Evan 267404 Parry 26740
King's Liverpool Regiment Lance-Corporal Thomas 267221 Dewsbury 26722 Incomplete
King's Liverpool Regiment Private George 265441 Lewtas 26544
Lincolnshire Regiment Private John 41939 Swift Wrote on top of card
King's Liverpool Regiment Lance-Corporal William A 355699 Davies 255699
York and Lancaster Regiment Private Hezekiah 29434 Taylor Hezrehiah
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Richard 359403 Costello 35940
King's Liverpool Regiment Private Gavin 47178 Shaw Garin Shaw
Labour Corps Private John 129160 Devonport 12916
Royal Field Artillery Gunner John 74787 Birchall Jonathan Birchall
Welsh Regiment Private Frederick 55360 Forrest 5536 (Incomplete)
King's Liverpool Regiment Corpl John 305636 Birch Jonathan Birch

I know that people can mistake 5 for 8 and other errors but to describe numbers as incomplete when they are not incomplete confuses me.

I feel like giving up on sending these errors in but I get told, what you are doing will help other researchers. Pity The national Archives this not consider this when they put the contract out for Tenders think if the Revenue they may have lost!!!

[dickiesam]

I haven't counted the total in that list but it is an appalling one. Most of those errors indicate an extremely sloppy transcription with checks being done only on a random sample. It is simply unbelievable that 100% checking was carried out and basically a lot of money was spent on a very poor job.

As you say some human errors are inevitable such as misreading a 5 for 8, but if you could spot the errors then so could a checker. And as for John/Jonathon... To me it looks like the transcribers used an OCR [Optical character recognition] program to scan the documents line-by-line, which could also account for a lot of the other errors.

[Katie]

I have so far sent in 155 errors to be corrected and I am now up to 343. I try and send 25 a week, when I send the next lot I am going to ask some questions.

1. Who carried out the transcribing?
2. Who did the checking if any checking was done?
3. If I have 343 errors and that is just the area our Society covers, what are they doing about other possible errors for the whole of the United Kingdom?

Even Ancestry are not as bad as this. I am fuming

[Wendyem]

Really pathetic Katie, as one who has reviewed/corrected on Ancestry-Australian projects, they are not so glaringly 'off'. Mostly some keyers too lazy to check guide lines or ask of the board for help.Then mostly dates, & location mess-ups at least in Australian sets. have of course seen some real doozies for UK indexes.

I'd have thought transcribers for this project would be only too pleased to be involved in such an important project to risk fouling it up?

Wendy.

[Katie]

The other week i decided that I was going to stop sending these errors in because 1 correction I sent in for Tom M Acton KLR they put him down as Ton M Acton and I was not going to bother any more. I finally succumbed today and sent another 50 in as I couldn't let Joseph Houghton 5193 KLR be recorded as Joshua Houghton. I have also asked some questions regarding the transcribing of this series of records and I will let you know the reply.