FMP transcription of UK 1871 census is poor!

Question

I've noticed that the Find My Past transcription of the UK 1871 census is strangely brief and potentially misleading - at least for many of the records I've used.

Example:

FMP transcription 

Joseph Wilson

Head

M

28

Northumberland, England

Ancestry transcription

Joseph Wilson

Head

M

28

Newcastle on Tyne

 

My transcription

Joseph Wilson

Head

Mar

M

28

Fitter

Newcastle on Tyne

So there is information missing - but particularly annoying is the absence of the Occupation column and the misleading "where born" data.

I try to remember to check the original now - especially for the 1871 where the birthplace mangling is glaring.

Answer 1

This is why it is always best to look at the original image on FMP and Ancestry.

Answer 2

Apart from mistranscriptions,  the transcripts so often miss out details. If you want to write family history rather than just trace a genealogy, these are important.

Here's James Ford on the FS transcript. 

"England and Wales Census, 1871", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VFJ3-MRK : 26 June 2022), James Ford, 1871.

His address is missing as is  the fact he was blind and I know from earlier censuses that this was late onset. (And  possibly helps explain his late marriage to his housekeeper and why he called his new daughter Kerenhappuch ).

Sharing image

Using the FS  transcript, (1891 census) I wouldn't know that my great grandfather brought up his family in a 2  roomed cottage,  that this  cottage was in the middle with his parents  on one side  with 2 of their  grandchildren and his  brother  and family on the other. Eighteen members of one extended family in 6 rooms. I also  wouldn't know that he was 'neither an employer nor unemployed'.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:42H6-53Z

.  Sharing image   

Or by 1911, that he was a china and horse dealer, 'from home'. He'd moved to a 5 roomed house in the High Street and said that he'd been married for 32 years and had 12 living children but 3 others had died.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X7GS-821

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Comments

Good points, and I will add that I try not to use FS because of so many transcription problems. Sometimes the assumptions about ethnicity too are bizarre.

FS is, however, good for finding all the children of a parent . I will then turn to FMP or even Ancestry for the record with image (hopefully).