Can we do anything about errors in the Federal Census?

Question

Bit the bullet, and got onto Ancestry. I've researched for 50 years, and know my immediate families quite well. Census problems! The errors in 1) transcribing and 2) doing the actual writing- are not good.

Short of putting my entire tree on the web, something I am loath to do, what other choices do I have to correct the errors? Is there any legal recourse?

Answer 1

There is a button on Ancestry that lets you add a correction to a transcription. You have to remember that most of the census transcriptions were done by thousands of volunteers over an 8 year period. Some were faced with really horrible copies and really bad handwriting. They did their best to decypher and transcribe it (and some were better typists than others). There was supposed to be someone else to proofread, but some of that was glossed over. I was involved in Illinois and Michigan transcriptions and there were a couple of times that I had to reassign entire counties to new volunteers because the transcriptions were so bad.

There is no legal recourse because it's not a government project. It's all caveat emptor. But Ancestry knows there were problems and they're happy to make corrections. We all are also aware that there was some bad enumeration and that names got slaughtered, especially when the respondents had accents. Genevieve came up with everything from Geneva to Janavay. When you come across something like that, you still send the correction to Ancestry, except you mark it as an enumeration error.

There are Ancestry employees who review all the correction requests and it only takes them a few days to let you know they're accepting or rejecting your correction.

Answer 2

Errors in ANYTHING Federal is there forever; there is no recourse.  Genealogy sites often allow for footnotes, etc., to allow a person to show corrections.  Of course, when you are researching, who would you believe: the Federal census or an individual?

My maternal grandmother's birth certificate has errors and her tombstone has errors; genealogy sites have more errors.  Me, I don't care, 'cuz I know what is correct.

Answer 3

If you are talking about a transcription error.. there are ways to input your view.  I also have seen some crappy transcriptions, compared to the image.

When it comes to the actual census.. it is a historical record as it is.. even if we know it has an error. Scientifically speaking, you view the record and achieve your own conclusion.. but you cannot go back and put your interpretation on something from 150 yrs ago. Imagine the furor.. if descendants disputed what is "right" between themselves, and fought over what the "correction" should be.

No historical document should be re-written.  It would violate the integrity of the record, since it records WHAT THEY WERE TOLD OR KNEW.

edit-

with your long experience with hand cranked microfilm to read the census.. it is still a blessing what we have now. I have saved images from ancestry, and you can then put them into a photo program and adjust the contrast.  Oh, what I wouldn't have given to have that, when I first started cranking reel after reel to find someone in a county and not even a messed up index to work with!! the faded films that no one could read! And the last laugh... consider how few here, have any clue as to what I am describing.

Tweak the indexes.. I have gone so far as to enter just the age/ birth year for the person, then narrow to the county I want. Thus, it pulls up the county, and I can still go page by page, the old way. Tedious, but if I know they must be in the county, it has still paid off to escape the bad indexing.