Do Your Transcriptions Need a Little Sic?

Document transcriptions should always be made as close to the original document–errors and all. Sometimes it is clear that the original document is in error. It is not the job of the transcriptionist to correct the error. Instead put the word sic in brackets after the error, like so “I John give to my daughter William[sic] the farm on which I now live.” Sic indicates that the word was copied from the original and the error was not done on the part of the transcriptionist. Use sic whenever it appears that the original is incorrect.

If you feel the need to comment on the error do so in a commentary that clearly is separate from the transcription

Don’t Assume Age Order

It can be tempting to assume that a list of a couple’s children has them in order of their birth. That is not always necessarily true. Sometimes the children may be listed by gender or in the order in which the writer remembered their names. Children may not necessarily be listed in order of age in a will–they may be listed in an order based on the property they were bequeathed.

Get a Local’s Advice

Posting images of records to genealogy groups online can be a good way to get advice on what a difficult-to-read word actually says. The one problem with that sometimes one really needs the advice of someone familiar with the area.

They don’t have to live there. They do not have to ever have lived there. But they need to be familiar with the local area, the names, the geography, and the families.

The father on this 1940-era birth certificate has a place of birth that is difficult to read. The village to which he refers (using the word “village” loosely) barely existed in 1940. There’s nothing there today. The family’s residence when this birth certificate was completed was about eight miles from where the father was born. Someone familiar with the area would be more likely to know what the reference was to: Breckenridge.

Not that someone with no local knowledge can’t know. They can. But your chances of getting the right answer increase significantly when someone familiar with an area makes the attempt to read the name.

Take Some Notes As You Go

I was working on the family of a second cousin of my great-grandfather who was born around 1860 and died around 1940. The dates really do not matter for this post, but what does matter is what I was reminded of.

Even if you are adding information to your tree (complete with images and citations), I prefer to jot a few things down as I go. The cousin apparently divorced his wife. She married again. He did not. Her second husband died a few years after their marriage. Her name is on that man’s tombstone, but she’s not buried with him. She’s buried with her son in a separate location. Her third husband had children with his first wife. That man’s obituary mentions some of his step-children, but not all of them.

All this was documented as I found it, but I also wrote out bits and pieces of it as I found it–so I could see it all in one place. It was all in my database, but keeping it straight in my head was imperative to not getting mixed up. I jotted down names, key dates, and relationships as I found them. This kept me from having to jump around in my database all the time.

Sometimes paper and pencil can be helpful.

Length of Single Status?

If your relative had multiple marriages, have you looked to see how long they were single in between marriages? Have you looked to see how long their subsequent spouses were single between marriages?

This is not to judge, but can help give some perspective on how the marriage might have been reacted to by close family members. And perspective always helps.

Temporary Attachments

Reminder that photographs mounted to heavy paper backing may not stay attached to the backing. If the identification is on the backing, it may eventually be separated from the picture.

Some attachments are not forever.

Unwritten Place Names

Are you using place names to describe where an ancestor was born, died, or was buried, that are not listed in any gazetteer? Make certain that you also include a more reference (eg. GPS coordinates) to assist others in finding the location.

Try and pin down where locations are when someone mentions something like the “McNally place,” the meadow slough, the Habben corner, etc. Sometimes these locations can be determined by using a land ownership map or other geographic finding aid and sometimes they cannot. If the McNallys never owned the farm but rented it for years their name won’t be on the land ownership map. The “meadow slough” may be hard to pin down as well.

Searching old newspapers for those locations is also a good idea. Additional approaches include asking local residents, librarians, genealogical or historical societies, etc. Remember that someone who knows that old place name may have no interest in genealogy whatsoever.

Scan the Whole Thing First

This post is not about digitally scanning documents. This one is about actually using your eyeballs.

I first worked on my children’s Belgian ancestors years ago. When using the vital records from the 19th century, I used them the way I had other European records from the same time span. I looked in the “book” for and read through the entries for the years I thought included the person’s birth date. Then, if I had the correct person and had the names of the parents, I scanned the years before and after the birth to locate siblings.

Imagine my surprise when I found indexes interspersed in the records. I had never encountered those before. While indexes are not perfect, they would have saved me a great deal of time. 


The first time you use any “new” record, familiarize yourself with the whole thing first, don’t assume that it is like every other one you have ever used.