It amuses when I read criticisims about problems with online census indexes.
What most surprises me, however, is how many people expect perfection. I
have been working with genealogy now for over thirty years. The first time
I walked into a genealogy library in July 1974, I was cautioned about
relying on third-pary transcriptions. By definition, human transcriptions
are going to contain errors. No one should be surprised at that. The
"Golden Rule" of genealogy applies as much today as it did one hundred years
ago. Verify! Verify! Verify!
Another surprise is the expectation that an immediate correction will be
made once an error is reported. Today we are dealing with fourteen federal
censuses and even more state census with millions, maybe billions, of
records. I am ecstatic that so many are indexed at all. Just a few years
ago, all we had was the 1850 Then came the 1880 done by the Mormons. Not
too long after that, the 1900 was released with a partial index. Gradually
others were added. Keep in mind that the indexes are meant to be an aid to
assist you in viewing an image of the original record.
I have never relied on the indexes as being the last word of the existence
or non-existence of a family in a certain location. I try exact spellings
and soundex searches first. Then I try my own variations. On Ancestry you
can also search with only the first three characters (or more) of the last
name folloewed by an asterisk (*) wildcard. My success has been
pehenomenal. Never once have I cursed the indexer because of a
misinterpretation or typographical error. Just the other day I found a man
named Lawrence spelled "Larwence" after much searching. How many times have
you yourself transposed letters when typing?
What I'm saying, Folks, is, "Be creative!" Don't give up. Don't
get upset
with people because of minor mistakes. Paying for a service may give you
the right to complain but it will never guarantee perfection. If you accept
that premise, you will relieve much of the stress in your life.