Notes on Census Extracts
Data from census extracts should not be considered as absolute.
Many census microfilms are very difficult and sometimes impossible to read because of poor quality of original filming or because the emulsion used in printing the microfilm has worn off and left much of the print too faded to read accurately. Microfilm quality may vary from one repository to another. A film that is very poor in one site may be quite readable at another site. In some cases, I have checked data at a later time from a better copy of microfilm and found that the data I had transcribed earlier was incorrect. Any time data looks questionable, try to find a better copy of microfilm and verify it.
In addition to physical quality of the microfilm, we have to consider the difficulty of deciphering the handwriting styles of one or two centuries ago. As if that weren't enough problem, the original census data was sometimes copied manually by clerks to create the copies that were sent off to federal repositories. As the data was copied, the likelihood of error was compounded by the clerks' having to decipher the census taker's original notes. Some names were obviously distorted from what they should have been, so you can guess that numbers for ages were also interpreted incorrectly by the copier.
Single initials are often very hard to decipher. Some upper case A's and H's, some S's and L's are almost indistinguishable, not to mention J's and I's. Usually J's had long tails below the line, but sometimes they were written with the J completely above the line, same as an I. In those cases, there may be no way to tell which initial is I and which is J. Also, even in the spelling of names, lower case r's and s's were often confused by the copying clerk for the loops of m's and n's. Lower case m, w, n, r, u and sometimes e and i, when strung together, become a series of identical curves impossible to distinguish unless you already know what the name is supposed to be. Not only could census takers have trouble spelling names, but copying clerks unfamiliar with a name could transform it into something unrecognizable.
