A transcription of a tombstone should only include what is on the tombstone. That’s what makes it a transcription. Any parenthetical information preferably needs to be entirely separate from the transcription itself and clearly indicated as material that is not on the stone. Brackets should be used to indicate there’s a portion you cannot read or a part of the transcription at which you are guessing.
Stone pictured is that of Belinda Newman in the Dunkard Cemetery in Linn County, Iowa.
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One response
I was blessed with finding my 2x great grandmother’s grave and was able to get a tracing shortly before it broke into pieces. It gave her full name which I didn’t have as well as her birth and death dates. She had Three given names.
There was also a quote on the base. “Beautiful and benevolent Mother, you will be missed.”