hole in paper burial records - name of deceased may be spouse or child? not clear
I am looking at an old burial register which is partly torn/ some holes in the middle of records. I can see a male name for some records. One or two of those names seem to be further along the line of the record suggesting that the "hole" contained another name, maybe a child or maybe a wife (sometimes there is an 'of' word before the male first name). I can fill in a family name for the deceased, leaving the given name blank but how do I indicate that there is a named male relative (relationship unclear)?
Thanks again for support
S
Answers
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Hi Sarah,
The more information you can add to your records, the easier it will, be for others to see the steps that you have taken to ensure accuracy as far as possible. Be sure to link the source of the burial record to the family names that you have found, then also add copious notes explaining exactly what you have related above: that there is a named male relative (relationship unclear).
I have attached a Knowledge Articles that may be of help.
Hope this helps a little.
Kind regards,
Barry
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@BarryJohnson In regards to Sarah Squires comment on burial records https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/125930/hole-in-paper-burial-records-name-of-deceased-may-be-spouse-or-child-not-clear#latest --- sounded to me like she might be indexing, in which case the batch code in brackets would be needed to help answer her question or I could be wrong -if so, sorry 😎
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Apologies, yes I am indexing.
UK, England, Lancashire—Nonconformist Church Records, 1647–1996 [Part B][MSGZ-16X]
1690 Burial records - there are some rather large holes in the paper register. For once the handwriting is not that bad, but the holes remove some/all of lines creating the record. In certain cases I can see the name of a male; the position of the name on the line strongly suggest to me another individual is the actual deceased (name missing) and has some relationship to the named male - often I can see the word "of" before the first name.
How to insert this information?
Where it seems to me clear that there is a relationship I think I should insert the family name in the place for the deceased, omitting given name. But then how to deal with the male relative...it seems to me to be negligent to omit information that could help the researcher, but I am not sure how to insert it.
S
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Sorry for not picking up that you were speaking about indexing - my fault.
I don't think that I can give you a definitive answer as the problem is down to personal interpretation. I may look at the record and decide that the answer is (a), and you may well agree with me, but the second indexer may have a different perspective and think that the answer is (b), so that whoever does the reviewing is faced with making his/her own judgement of either (a) or (b), or even their own opinion (c).
Indexing is there to help those examining the records find the names that they are searching for, and where details are limited or unclear, it has to be left up to the person searching to make up their own mind as to what they see or find and how to use the data.
'Type what you see' and do what looks right to you.
Kind regards,
Barry
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In indexing we are never to assume unless the project instructions say differently which is rarely the case. If a researcher wants to assume that is up to them but not to us. We just index what we actually see.
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