Abbreviations for place names can change over time. What is used for a location today may not be what was used one hundred years ago. Sometimes old forms fall out of use or governmental or postal regulations change the “standard” abbreviation. Some census takers or other record officials make their own abbreviations when they tire of writing the same location over and over. Self-made abbreviations may be unique to the creator and are best analyzed with local geographic names in mind. Sometimes two location can have the same abbreviation. In some US census records Canada and California are both abbreviated “Ca.” Others chose to abbreviate it as “Can.” And sometimes Indiana was abbreviated as “Ia.” Today that’s the state of Iowa. But if you see it in an […]
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Throughout the entire court case he is referred to as Christopher Troutfetter. His name was actually Christian. There are numerous other records on this man where he is referred to as Christian–except this court case. When transcribing these records for my files, I transcribe his name as Christopher because that is what the documents say. I make an annotation that his name is incorrect through the document. That annotation is done separately from my transcription of the document and in a way that does not suggest I am correcting the document one hundred years later. We don’t correct errors in records when transcribing them. When something is clearly incorrect and all “whacked out,” a notation is made so that others know the error was not ours. But we […]
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