Entries in death register are often transcriptions of the actual death certificate or the information that was given or submitted to the informant. This 1883 death register entry was filled out by the clerk who took the information from the certificate that was completed by the informant (in this case the doctor). If the entries in the ledger are all “in the same hand,” they were filled out by a clerk and not the actual informant.
Elephind allows searchers to search thousands of free online digital newspapers at once. We’re periodically featuring “old” sites that users may have forgotten about or not have been aware of.
Any source can have information from a variety of informants whose knowledge of that information can vary. A death certificate for an eighty-year old woman may have a son-in-law for the informant. His knowledge of the mother-in-law’s date and place of death may be very accurate (that information would be primary information). His knowledge of his mother-in-law’s parents and date and place of birth would be secondary (he wasn’t there when she was born and may never have met either of her parents). Always think about each piece of information on a document as having a potential different level of accuracy. All information is not created equally–not even from the same informant on the same document.
Primary information is a statement about an event made by a person who had first hand knowledge of that event and who made that statement relatively close to when the event took place and when their memory was still good. Generally speaking, that is. People can provide primary information years after an event, but their memory has to be good in order to remember details of an event. Sometimes witnesses’ memories are not accurate. Is it always possible to get primary information? No. Sometimes there simply was no record created with primary information. This post on Rootdig provides a more detailed example of how one original source with primary information contradicted all the others with secondary information.
When I mentioned to someone that my grandmother was baptized at the age of five into a church that practice infant baptism, their immediate response was that “the family had to wait for a pastor to marry them.” There was no convincing this person that their assumption was incorrect. The church where Grandma was baptized had a regular pastor from the 1880s through the present day. Grandma was born in 1910. While the area where Grandma lived in the 1910-1915 time frame was rural, it was not isolated and was fairly well settled. In fact there were more people living there then that there are today. Make certain your assumptions are time and context appropriate. Waiting for a preacher of the “right denomination” might have been necessary in […]
City directories are a great source, but determine if there have been any renumbering or changes in names between the time of the city directory and the present. That will make it easier to find the home’s residence in certain census records if the names of the residents cannot be located. And it’s always fun to see the actual location in modern times.
My grandmother would have turned 106 today. In honor of Grandma’s birthday, today’s tips have to do with research on her or her family: Not everyone was born where they think they were born (Grandma insisted she was born in Tioga, Hancock County, Illinois. It was actually several miles away near what was then Elderville–we never argued about it.) Sometimes stories that seem incorrect are totally correct. (Grandma insisted she was baptized at the age of five on the same day as two of her siblings). Sometimes people leave out little details about their siblings because you don’t think to ask (like her brother’s divorce). Don’t forget to ask questions while people are still living (there’s a few years later that I wish I had). Identify people on pictures while […]
Those “missing” relatives could be hiding under a first name of which you are not aware. I have two great-aunts (one by birth and one by marriage) had actual first names that they never used past their childhood. They used their middle names as their “legal” name. That middle name is on all their documents, their tombstone, etc. Except in records before they were married–those all list them by their “real” first name. Is someone hiding in records because they have another name of which you are not aware?
My ancestor’s 1883 death register entry indicated there was no undertaker. Looking at other entries on the same page, it was clear that others in the county did not have undertakers either. It’s impossible to notice if something is unusual if you don’t look at other records on the same page. Always view a record in the context of other records. Look at entries before and after the one of interest to see if what you think is unique about your record is really unique after all.
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Always look at the front and back of every document. This document from a military service file was folded into thirds and the “cover” contained a comment made by the clerk–that wasn’t really supposed to be there. That’s why it’s always advised to make certain you see both sides of a document.
Sometimes genealogists are tempted to “fix” documents when transcribing them. Don’t. Make comments about the accuracy of the document in your notes accompanying the transcription. Do not indicate the document says something that it does not. Documents can be wrong. But sometimes they are right when we think they are wrong and if we “correct” them, we won’t know what they originally said. This draft card should be transcribed as a birth in Hancock, [State of] Tioga. My notation indicates that the reference is to Tioga, Hancock County, Illinois.
Guardianship records in some cases may give a precise date of birth, usually stated as the day the child turned a certain age. Not all guardianships give such precise information, but many do at least give an age or an approximate age. These records can be helpful in location where there are not good vital records.
The 1895 will of Tamme Tammen in Pike County, Illinois, refers to his wife as “Elka B. Franklen Tammen.” Franklen (actually most likely Franken given where the Tammens were from) could have been Elka’s maiden name, middle name, or married name with a previous husband. I should include in my notes on Elka that she is referred to as “Elka B. Franklen Tammen” in her husband’s 1895 will. I should not enter that as her maiden name. Using it for a clue to other relatives when searching is advised. But there’s not really good evidence in this will that it’s her maiden name. There are other possibilities.
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