The 1939 survey (General)

by fredb , Friday, November 06, 2015, 17:04 (3315 days ago) @ fredb

Me moaning again. This survey they claim will have a more than 98% accuracy but that's way out, I've looked at a large part of the Monmouth area and would say they'll be lucky to have 75% correct. It seems like a rush job by the government in 1939 with probably very poor training. Somebody given a survey form book and told you go that way and write down all their names etc, they probably didn't trust households to fill in a postal form. All these years later people who have never written with pen and ink struggle to read the forms.

Within towns and streets you'll probably find people easy enough but don't count on it. I e-mailed and told them households are missing and was basically told I don't know what I'm doing "People might not be living where you think they were" but that doesn't explain why the addresses don't exist. As I said half of Wyesham is missing and all beyond the church, the next page maybe? it includes large country houses, probably 20 households, I searched for Wye Vale a large house where George Tippins lived, no Tippins in Monmouth according to the survey.

I went to check out The Buckholt on the Hereford road out of Monmouth but the survey ends at Mansons Cross, so about 20 households not included up there. Mansons Lane is named wrongly, and I tried searching over the border at Welsh Newton but Welsh Newton isn't included in the survey either, just Welsh Newton Common which for some reason is said to be part of Leominster and Wigmore District about as far North in Herefordshire as you can get. Was this a different Welsh Newton? No, Florrie Rogers appears, I was postman up there for 10 years.

One of the main problems is that unlike the census we get to see, there is no way to offer corrections for obvious errors. Does anyone know who transcribes these documents, are people paid to do it? If I struggle to read a place name I use Genuki, chose the county and click on list of towns, villages, and parishes, so easy, how can anyone make sense of a list without having a map and layout in front of you? As we all know you can't beat local knowledge, and asking a group like us to read through and offer corrections would make sense to me. Will I be around for the 1921 census? That's if they decide to transcribe it, last thing I heard they were unsure about doing that.