I was working in some 19th century death records. After some review of the entries from the death register, I was reminded of something that sometimes gets overlooked:
What are we actually looking at?
In this case, I knew that the entries in the death register were made from the actual death certificates. The certificate number was one pretty obvious clue to that import. Another clue was the consistent nature of the handwriting among several pages of entries. Even if they entries were not made on the same day, they were clearly written by the same person.
It is always advised to know what record one is using and if that record fits into a larger record creation process. Knowing what you are using is key to analyzing it.
In the case of the death register, the fact that I’m using a transcription of the actual record means that a part of it could have been transcribed incorrectly.
No responses yet