Child's surname

DHilary2

Hello I am reviewing UK, England, Herefordshire—Bishop's Transcripts, 1583–1850 [Part D][MSTZ-Q8B]. The second to the last entry is for an illegitimate child. The instructions regarding the child's surname don't seem to cover this situation. It says "If a surname was not recorded for a child and only 1 surname was recorded for both parents, type the parents' surname in this field. If 2 different surnames were recorded for the parents, type the father's surname in this field. This is an exception to the General Indexing Guidelines." What about if there is only a surname for the mother - do we index that for the child or just mark it blank?

Many thanks

Hilary.

CindyPrice

@DHilary2 I agree, it really isn't worded well at all. I had to read it a few times before I understood.

CindyPrice

@DHilary2 The answer is in the first sentence you quoted from the field helps. "If a surname was not recorded for a child and only 1 surname was recorded for both parents, type the parents' surname in this field. There is only one surname recorded for parents and that is the mother's surname. The surname was indexed corrected as "Davies".

Thank you for helping to review these historical records.

DHilary2

Hello,

Thank you for your help.

I think the sentence could be worded better if that is what it means. It says "If a surname was not recorded for a child and only 1 surname was recorded for both parents, type the parents' (plural) surname in this field. In this instance there isn't a surname listed for BOTH parents, just for the mother, so it doesn't exactly fit that scenario.

I will leave it as it is though.

Thanks

Hilary.