How to edit fields on US Census records that aren't listed for editing

GardnerBetteAnn1

I know there are a number of Census records that allow editing of names. The attached problem is not one of those.

 Is there any way to edit or notate on the record of this Census the following errors?

Copied in the attached file is part of the US Census, 1920 Colorado, Otero County.

There is a very serious transcription error for the entry of Florence Yant listed in dwelling 98.

The transcription shows her as the daughter of the Edmund Johnson family in dwelling 109.

This is incorrect. She is single and living in a separate dwelling and is not their daughter.

In the US Census, 1910, Colorado, Otero County, she is shown living with her parents, Alexander and Josephine Yant, and her brother Phillip.

This information is consistent with numerous other records.

Fam Search re 1920 Census gross transcription error for Florence Yant.png

There is no way given to “correct” the errors in the 1920 Census. I can possibly add comments when I cite this source, but can I do anything else?                 

Gail Swihart Watson

Also, and this is the answer, the enumerator discovered his mistake. Look in the notes to the left. "Omitted from family #98 ..." Florence is still living with her family, she is not living on her own. When you go to family 98 on the previous page, you see her parents listed, Alex and Josephine Yants, in dwelling 97. She was not listed with them on page 9, but she is certainly listed on page 10 as the daughter of the head of dwelling 97. So the fact that she is listed out of order clearly implies that after the enumerator visited dwelling 97, someone told the enumerator "Oh, I forgot to tell you, Florence lives over there too, and is their daughter."

So now I guess this could be called a transcription error, but it depends on the instructions given to the indexer. I'm not sure untangling such unorthodox record keeping is what indexers should spend time doing.

Gail Swihart Watson

I'm removing my post about people giving false information to the enumerator, since I don't think it applies any more. (Can't actually delete it, so I'm editing it out.)

GardnerBetteAnn1

Thanks so very, very much Gail. You have reminded me how important reading written notes on a document is. So I can add that as a note when attaching the source. I noticed that Family Search has a way to easily do that as an addition to sources.