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From: "John S. Wilkinson" <>
Subject: What good are Official Records????
Date: Sun, 08 Feb 1998 16:35:04 -0800


What good are Official records?

I finally received my fathers Birth Certificate and Death Certificate.
The birth cert. had my father listed as

Edward Luke Wilkerson son of
Daniel Wilkerson and Ida Grinnell

The real truth is it should have been
Edward Luke Wilkinson son of
Daniel Wilkinson and Ida Greenwell

This birth certificate was issued 16 October 1972.
Apparently copied from handwritten church registers.

It is easy to see how names are changed by the person
reading the records. "in" looks like "er"
"Grinnell" looks like "Greenwell"

The transcriber usually used names he knew of
if he knew a Wilkerson that is what the name looked like to him.
if he knew a Grinnell that is what the name looked like to him.

Does this mean that I have used the wrong name all my life?
The US Census has Them listed as I have them.
How do I change Official Records to reflect the proper names?
Just imagine trying to research this in 30 years.

"John S. Wilkinson" <>

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