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Archiver > NY-WESTERN > 2007-07 > 1184930325


From: "Linda Schmidt" <>
Subject: Re: [NY-WESTERN] Census
Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2007 07:18:45 -0400
References: <d4c.76414f0.33d16f8f@aol.com>


>>Also, I have found A LOT of misspellings of surnames<

Yes, that definitely is a factor - although we cannot blame only the
census takers -
because as people are transcribing these records, they can mis-read a name
and spell it differently also.
Not to point fingers at anyone! But, between the handwriting of that time
period and whether the name was spelled right/wrong to begin with, it can
often become much different from the original. And of course you need to
figure in the fact that people wrote what they "heard" and spelled
accordingly, whether it was someone's name, a place, or a common word.
Often you can find names and/or words spelled differently within the same
document.
Linda

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