[or-roots] LDS online Census

[Leslie Chapman]

Just have to throw in my two cents worth again. Yes there are glaring
problems with the online 1880 census and others also, I am most familiar
with 1880 because it happens to be a freebie and I am milking it for all
it's worth. I don't intend to pay for any genealogy online until I have
substantially exhausted what I can get for free and from the occasional
charity of such as yourself Kevin and Virgene who spent considerable time
digging up folks for me earlier this year.

I have only recently attacked the readlily available stuff I can get locally
from my FHC and Libararies to try and fill in some of my most important
gaps, ie folks in close generations and the infamous "letters to grandma" .

One of the problems with the LDS web pages is the transcribers often got it
wrong, and since most surnames were written only once per household, if one
member is wrong they all are, my R/Lockwoods, N/Tacks etc, also the online
search doesn't pick up things like Milven for Melvin.

That said, it is still valuable to me for a couple of reasons; one it is
free, and two if I think I know the area someone should be in, going house
to house is a snap as long as your puter doesn't crash and you can stay
online and you have the patience needed if you connect speed is slow. I
usually run at around 24000 bps because our phone line is sad.

Yes I have had experiences of not being able to find people, but most of
them were because I didn't know where to look and now that I have learned
that I have been able to find a lot of folks there by going house to house.
The other problem of course is how accurate the rest of the data is if they
couldn't transcribe the name right. For the most part I have found that I
would almost trust their judgement against my own unless I have the film in
front of me and sometimes considering the quality of some of our library
copies not even then would I dispute them.

So they may not be perfect, but I think they are a good tool as long as one
takes it all with a grain of salt.

Les C