Census Records

There are two competing groups processing transcriptions for posting on the Web. One is at least 6 months behind in making corrections and uses a page numbering system that may be theoretically correct but is user unfriendly. The most accurate, up-to-date transcriptions for Madison County, with page numbers as they appear on the microfilms or CDs can be found by clicking here and then going to the Iowa section.

For more information, see below.

Early in the development of on-line census transcriptions for the USGenWeb Project, the group doing the processing had internal strife and broke into two competing factions. I, as a transcriber, can choose to submit transcriptions to either group or both. I have chosen to submit to both.

Some of the censuses are very difficult to transcribe due to terrible handwriting and or disappearing ink. As I do succeeding transcriptions, I often find names clarified that were next to unreadable in previous transcriptions. This, along with corrections submitted by descendants, leads to more accurate transcriptions but also represents a significant number of changes.

One group (Group 1) has been extremely responsive and usually processes the transcriptions or any changes within 24 hours. The other group (Group 2) is 6 to 18 months behind in processing transcriptions, making changes, and answering Emails.

Group 2 also changes all the page numbers on the transcriptions to some theoretically correct numbering system (see the long explanation on their website). While perhaps theoretically correct, it appears to be nonsense when you look at the microfilm. This makes finding your data difficult at best.

Unfortunately, Group 2 is the one feeding transcriptions to the Iowa Archives so any corrections submitted will not appear in the Archives for at least 6 to 18 months. Therefore, if you want to see the most up-to-date transcriptions with page numbers that correspond to what you see on the CDs or microfilm, use the link at the top of this page.

Kent Transier, Transcriber