Which Column to use?

FaithHamm

I am indexing US, Virginia—Vital Records, 1715–1901 [Part B][M3R5-7M5], register of Deaths. There are two columns for the Date of Death, for which column do I use to record this? It is saved in my que for someone to look at.

erutherford

The second date of death makes me wonder if that's the slave owner's date of death.

Susan Ann Mullen

We have asked for a 'higher' authority to weigh in on this.

barbaragailsmith1

The instructions say that indexes won't have dates, and this has dates... but it also says it's an Index to the register. Instructions say not to index indexes. Maybe we don't index them at all. There are a few of those names on the right that are repeated and have different death dates. It's an odd image. I've seen some where "Names of Owners" was crossed out in the column heading on the right, so there were two columns of deceased. I wonder if this one just didn't get part of the title column crossed out.

Susan Ann Mullen

Good question, barbaragailsmith1. I have not gotten an answer back yet but will update as soon as I do.

Susan Ann Mullen

We have an answer! "Please index the name of the deceased person, the death date in the right date of death column ,and the name of the owner if given."

FaithHamm

Thank you @annewandering, @erutherford and @barbaragailsmith1 for helping me with this. I greatly appreciate it and will use this knowledge should I encounter another one like this.