Erroneous transcription of POLHILL family records

ChristopherTemple-Watts

The following are children of Nathaniel Polhill (1723-1782) who have been attributed to 'Mary' when they are the children of Elizabeth Coppard (1726-1781)

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J3ZM-JV8

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NPZQ-HXH

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JQBS-JBC

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F444-WNR

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NPZQ-66V

and possibly (but I am in no way certain):

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JMV8-F9R

Can anyone tell me how I go about alerting someone to this error?

genthusiast

@ChristopherTemple-Watts

Ok. I think you should definitely take a look at the film (if available to you - I don't know that it will be but you can give it a shot):

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/254351?availability=Family%20History%20Library

Film DGS

596963  8407716

Items 8-10 (you will need to count the dividers as the film starts with item#1)

I was able to browse all the births/baptisms. The transcription of Mary is correct. Here in order of the register (with christening dates):

The description of the residence and occupation as Tobacconist are all very similar. So it does beg the question are Mary and Elizabeth the same person - Mary Elizabeth - or are there two Nathaniel Polhills?

With the history that you reference on the website - it would appear that - Elizabeth Coppard is Mary Elizabeth Coppard and went by Mary for the birth's 1755-1763.

It looks like you went ahead and merged the two Nathaniels - so now you will just need to sort out the children.

I hope this helps somewhat.

genthusiast

Community responder: I am seeing image unavailable on those records - only the index. The index for the ones I checked say mother - Mary. It would be difficult to mistake Mary for Elizabeth. Are you indicating that Nathaniel Polhill was married twice? If so and your documentation supports that - you can edit the children relationships in the tree and attach them to Nathaniel and Elizabeth - providing reference to that documentation. I did see that Elizabeth is in the Tree married to a 'duplicate'? Nathaniel. I hope this helps.

ChristopherTemple-Watts

I am weeding out the duplicates slowly. There was no record of any second wife and I can't find any record of Mary apart from these particular records. Nathaniel Polhill (1756-1782) is my 4th great grandfather who is buried in the Cathedral Church of St Saviour, Southwark with his mother, Elizabeth Coppard and father, Nathaniel Polhill. With the children I am speaking of it would be chronologically impossible for two separate wives unless he had the two wives bearing children at the same time.

It is most perplexing. I am of the opinion that the transcriber was having a bad day when these records were created. I don't want to upset anybody. I just need to sort out what is happening and it's very difficult to do in Australia when I need access to the scans of the actual parish registers to find where the problem lies.

Quite a lot of information can be found here: http://www.all-saints-church-renhold.org/polhillfamilyhistory.html

It contains a few errors but for the most part it is reliable.