Simon and Chris

Pieces in the Census                          74
Pieces that have survived                  73
Pieces on Line at FreeCEN.org.uk      63 (59)
Percentage of population on line        85 (80)
Pieces being transcribed                    6 (8)
Pieces being checked                          3 (5)
Pieces being validated                        0 (0)
Pieces waiting to be checked               1 (1)

(numbers in brackets show the situation last time we wrote)

1871 Census

Who are the other people working with you to put the 1861
 on the web for free?

It may sound obvious, but our task as transcribers is to produce an accurate version of what the enumerator wrote. This is why the phrase "as is" keeps being used. We need to put on line what the enumerator said, not what he meant to say, or should have said.  Sometimes we have to abbreviate his entry, especially in the occupation column, but otherwise we try to copy exactly (assuming we can read it in the first place!)

Some forenames need a second look: has he put Harriet, Harriett, Hariot, Haret, or Harriott this time? Is it Louisa or Lousia? Elizabeth or Elizebeth? Ann or Anne (or Anna)?  And is it Frederick, Fredrick or Frederic?  Not to mention all the variations on Philadelphia! Placenames and addresses can also need care: Seddlescomb, Sedlescombe, Sedelscomb and so on...
Auto-repeat, where Excel guesses that what you're typing now is the same as an earlier entry, can be a nuisance as well as a help. Be careful!

Nineteenth Century medical men (and others) did love their qualifications! Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, Licentiate of this or that..., East India Civil Service etc.  Here we do often need to squeeze things to get them into 30 characters.  MRCP is fine (and preferable to M.R.C.P.) Please don't put mrcp, though, as the computer will change this to Mrcp, which could be confusing. There are examples in FIELDS for abbreviating details of Farmers and their employees.