Transcribing Twins

LFiona1

When transcribing baptisms is there anyway to add a note that a child is one of a pair of twins?

genthusiast

No - there is not a way to add a note while indexing. You can Add Entry and add the other twin (with same parents) - at least two children with same parents born 'same day' listed in the index should be sufficient.

braveheart1

i have twins where the date was corrected for one but not the other. do i type what is written or the corrected entry. one is January 1856 the other says Dec. Also I've forgotten how to share the batch so you can see it . They are definitely twins same parents same address

JBPurdie

@braveheart1

You are right unless we see the batch we can't really comment, it would good if we knew the batch

Hope you were able to come to a decision on how to transcribe the record.

braveheart1

Thanks. Normally its type what you see never assume but if I do that Im going to split up the twins

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Melissa S Himes

Thank you for sharing that batch, @braveheart1 It is perfect to answer both questions - with those twin boys being baptized on January 20th and what to do when the dates seem to be incorrect.

The question of Twins:

We would create a record for each of the twins.

This particular Project, UK Scotland-Lanarkshire-Church Records 1823-1967 has an instruction for indexing twins/multiples:

• If information about twins or other multiple births is recorded on a document, index a separate entry for each child.

But, we do not index the word Twin on the entry. The researcher will see the record and identify that they are twins, if not realizing it from the indexes!

The question of dates is a little more complicated on this batch.

To me, it appears that Jan'y was actually the original entry and was crossed out and replaced with Decr for William. (Thus making them both born on Decr 1st. and baptized on Jan'y 20). The right side of the image also has the next baby born on Dec'r 20th and baptized on Jany 20th 1856. The year 1856 is written above the baptism date column, not above the birth date column on the left side of the image. I imagine that when the scribe had to enter 1856 on the baptism date column, their mind went straight to Jany for the month and they then wrote over it with Decr.

PS: But, if I were to review this, on entry 20, I would make the birth year 1855 (if there is somewhere on the reference images that shows the birth year as 1855). Unfortunately, I can't see the reference images or the filmstrip for this batch. If there is no birth year on the previous images, then I also would not index 1855 as the "presumed" birth year.

braveheart1

Thanks. i decided to keep the twins together as twins are often missed so I put Dec for both boys.

I checked reference images. They gave the year as 1855 written across both baptism and birth columns.

I think I made a mistake with another couple of entries. The birth date was later than the baptism date so I switched them round as general guidance says to record the earlier date for birth but the golden rule of indexing "type what you see" makes me think I should have left it as written. Afterall sometimes entire families were baptised together so it could have been any year. It would be good to know for future reference.