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Subject: Re: [MDALLEGA] Research
Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2005 09:29:54 EDT


Jocelyn makes a really important point....and kudos for 'fessin' up to be a
tired transcriber on occasion! When we're using extracted/ abstracted
records, it's important to use them as a guide, and not 100% gospel. These are
human beings who are doing the first-hand looking and note-taking. Most of us
can attest to this, just from reviewing our own readings of census films. We
DO make small, but important mistakes every so often. And the same goes for
cemetery readings--and this gets even more difficult. There are judgement
calls to be made, many involving the fact that the record in question--an
inscription on perishable marble--has been slowly dissolving over time. You do
the best you can, and maybe you get lucky by running across a transcription of
the same stone done many decades ago, when the writing was clearer. And even
THEN....a stonecutter can make an error, or perhaps the family member
supplying the information has the actual date slightly off....you know what I mean.
It all DOES happen.

It all underscores the importance in serious genealogical work to accurately
source everything that you present as fact. Your notes for that specific
record should show just what it was that you looked at, where you found it,
etc. Not only does it do the professional courtesy of allowing another
researcher to check what you've presented; it also allows YOU to revisit material or
things that perhaps you didn't have a handle on the first go round. I know
I've cringed over notes that I took ten years ago made during an expensive
trip to a place I might never get a chance to visit again. I was just getting
started on a particular line, didn't really know what I was looking for or
where I might find it, etc. I was in a hurry, my handwriting was lousy, it was
really hot out in that cemetery and the flies were biting, etc. In cases
like that, you may find that the films that you can request might help clear up
your own early errors. You'll go back to your own work and either make
corrections or at LOTS of footnotes.

I'll part here with one of my favorite examples: Tom Imler's set of
cemetery readings for Bedford Co., PA. It's truly a mixed bag. Tom and his wife
did us all a valuable service several years ago. They worked as a team; she
was handicapped and couldn't navigate easily out of the car, so Tom would do
the walking and reading, reporting what he saw over a walkie-talkie to his
wife, who would do the note taking. Occasionally there were errors, some just
simple number transpositions, and others left you scratching your head. One
error occurs straight through the book series: the spelling of a German gven
name. Whenever the name BALTZER was found on a stone, the Imlers would record
it as BLAZER. I noticed it because it's a name that was used frequently in my
dad's various lines. It's the German form of the name BALTASAR--one of the 3
Wise Men in the Bible, the others being Caspar and Melchior. It got funny
after awhile....I was beginning to feel that maybe their typewriter just
wasn't capable of typing those letters in the correct order! And whenever I see
family groups posted at Ancestry, etc., that repeat the error, I have to
cringe and chuckle. I know immediately where they found the material, and I also
know that they didn't look very closely.

David in Richmond, VA

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