Thursday, March 13, 2014

Documented Mistakes

Image (c) Public Domain
My recent 52 Ancestors post got me to thinking about how many times we look for an original document to verify a date of birth or death and how often we find mistakes in said documents.
One would think an original document such as a birth or death certificate or a marriage record, even would be correct as they are what genealogist term closer to the source. However, that is often not true. A document is only as good as the person who gives the information on it, referred to as the informant and the person who prepares said document.
I thought I would give a few examples of some mistakes that I have ran across in documents through the years.
 Example Number One:
For years I had been searching for the Death Certificate of my late Grandmother. I had used the date on her tombstone as a basis to search for her record. The State of Missouri indexes older Death Certificates online for free so that was my starting point. After having not found her there I was very disappointed and gave up my search for a bit. When the 1940 Census came out I decided to look for my father to see where he was at at that time. I found him in the household of his father, but guess what? It appeared his mother was alive and well also. Her Tombstone Date had her dying in 1939, which obviously was a mistake given the fact she appeared in the census. So, using the new info I had I decided to look again, I still could not locate it. So, I contacted the State of Missouri and had them to do a search. They could not locate it either. Rather than give up, I decided to search for all women named Bertha who died and was living in Stoddard County, Missouri at the time of their death. Bingo! I found her Death Certificate. The problem all along had simply been a transcription error. Instead of her last name being EADS as it should have been it had been transcribed: EAUS. Never give up!
The second mistake I found, I expounded on in my recent 52 Ancestors post about my cousin: Ophelia Ray Nalley.
There have been many more mistakes that I have located like the two I shared above. Lets face facts, we are all only human and mistakes happen. We sometimes have to be able to read between the lines and ask ourselves if something we are seeing seems amiss.
Another incident I wanted to reflect on, my Maternal Grandmother and Grandfather divorced when my mother was three. Marriage records indicate that Grandfather ESTERLINE remarried before his divorce to Grandma was even finalized! I do not see how that would have been possible and personally, I think it was likely a transcription error.
What mistakes have you found in your ancestral hunt? I would love to hear about them too. In the meantime, happy hunting!

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