Multiple Documents For the Same Person But One Shows Proof Of A Name Change
Hello! Im just getting back into indexing and have a naturalization record that shows 3 documents for the same person.
First Name: Boruth or Ben
Last Name: Mehlsaek Or Melzak
One document shows his entry into Ellis Island under the name Boruth Mehlsaek. But the ticket only shows his name and date of entry. No date of birth or anything else.
Documents 2 and 3 are declaration of intention documents that are identical. I marked 2 and 3 as identical and that leaves me with document 2.
Here's the problem. Document 2 now shows he's going by the name Ben Melzak with no mention of his original Russian born name Boruth Mehlsaek.
I worry about indexing document 1 because it won't show his birth date and there's no proof on document 2 that his name used to be Boruth Mehlsaek not Ben Melzak.
Is there a way I can like them? Do I need to call and talk to someone in the family history center? Or do I index them both showing both of his names but what happens when the document is proofread and changed?
If you could help that would be great!
Here's the link below.
MQ5Z-DZP
Answers
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You'll fare better asking about Indexing in the specific Indexing category. https://community.familysearch.org/en/categories/indexing-support
Edit to add - this post was NOT in Indexing when I made my comment. It's been moved without comment or breadcrumb.
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Each image is indexed, and reviewed, as stand-alone documents. An exception made for the Declaration and Petition if they are for the same person and on the same image.
Image 1 is indexed correctly, however, Mary's surname is not present. Is it Peternel? Probably, but we do not make assumptions on anything in any project, so Mary's surname is not indexed.
Image 2 contains an overlay, the Certificate of Arrival. and we only index the topmost document. Image ttwo has two entries and is index as follows:
Enrey 1:
GN: Frank
SNi: Peternel
Record Day: 5
Record Month: Mar
Record Year: 1925Entry two is indexed as:
GN: Boruth
SN: Mehlsaek
Record Day: 13
Record Moth: May
Record Year: 1922To add an entry, click this icon on the toolbar (it is directly to the left of the trash can).
This dialog pops up. The default settings is After the last entry. You need Before the first entry.
Click Add and you'll be able to add Frank's info.
Image 3 also contains an overlay, the Declaration, and is indexed as:
Record Number: 18055
GN: Ben
SN: Melzack
Color or Race: White
Birth Day: 3
Birth Month: Apr
Birth Year: 1891
Birth Place: Warsaw, Russia Poland
Record Day: 6
Record Month: Nov
Record Year: 1918We do not glean the sex of the petitioner from their name. If you have an image like Image 3, where they are not married, or you cannot tell the sex by the language in the document; ie wife, husband, Mrs., mark it blank. The only exception when the sex is not listed, or cannot be figured out by the language, is the occupation of housewife. This does not apply to occupations like policeman or postman. There was a lengthy discussion late 2022 or early 2023 just to get the exemption for housewife.
With indexing, we are creating a finding aid for a researcher to find their ancestor(s), not a transcript. The researcher for Ben could possibly know that his entrance name was Boruth. My great grandfather came over as Wilhelm, but he changed to William and my maiden name that ends in "man" to distance himself, and his family, from their very German name during World War I, so I know, through research here at FS, that his name was Wilhelm and the German surname.
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This is the "index everything" project, so my (rather limited) understanding is as follows:
Image 1 has either one entry (the Petitition for Frank Peternel) or two (Petition and Affidavits).
Image 2 has at least two entries: the Oath for Frank, and the Certificate of Arrival for Boruth Mehlsack. It is completely unclear from the instructions whether Frank's order of admittance should be a separate entry or not.
Image 3 has one entry, Ben Melzack's Declaration.
Image 4 is a duplicate of image 3.As erutherford says, we're indexing, not transcribing. It is not our job to figure out spelling variations on different documents. It's not even within our purview to figure out whether Boruth and Ben really are the same guy, as the clerk clearly believed. We just index what's on the topmost sheet(s) of paper. (We treat them as if they were all the same size of page, like in a book.)
(That said, based on Melzack, I believe the name on the arrival is Mehlsack, i.e., the next-to-last letter is a 'c', not an 'e'.) (It means "flour sack".)
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Frank's Oath is indexed as a separate entry. It does not have an overlay and is a different person.
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