Should I be able to update estimated birth year in an indexed marriage record?
Greetings,
In the record documenting the marriage of Joseph Johnson and Rebecca Kneeland (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NW5C-RXK) Joseph’s age at the time of marriage is given as 29 with an estimated birth year of 1821. However, Joseph Johnson, son of Joseph T. and Hannah P. Johnson, born 1 May 1831, and Rebecca Kneeland, daughter of Hiram R. and Rhoda A. Kneeland, born 21 February 1835, were married on 29 May 1850. This would make Joseph 19 years old at the time of his marriage and not 29. I was able to change Joseph’s age in the record from 29 to 19. However, when I change his estimated birth year from 1821 to 1831 and press the save button, I receive an error message stating “Your changes were not saved. Please try again later.”
I have the following questions: Is this a change I should be able to make or do I have insufficient permission? Is this a temporary system issue, and as the error message suggests, should I simply try again later. Thanks.
Best Answers
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Hi @Michael87718, transcriptions of records need to be as they appear in the original document. So even though you have knowledge that Joseph Johnson jr was in fact 19 and that 29 is a clerical error, the transcript does need to remain as it appears in the original, ie 29 years old. Whilst record errors such as this do sometimes occur, ensuring that transcripts adhere purely to what is recorded in the original document is important to prevent well meaning individuals 'massaging' records to match (incorrectly) with PIDs that share some similarities. For example, adding an age where none appears, or doctoring a birthdate. Additionally, even with the apparent error, they can serve as a vital data point in further research.
Fortunately, in your case Joseph Johnson jr is a well documented individual, and whilst the record from the Massachusetts, State Vital Records, 1638-1927 record set contains the clerical error, the record from the Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001 is correct (or near as, with age listed as 20 years old) and all other details match. (Both records already attached to Joseph Johnson LCMV-VBB).
The best thing to do is make a note on the attached record which contains the error under "Reason this source is attached" noting the error, the reasons you know it to be an error, and citing other record and subsequent census data that verifies your statement. You can also add a note to that effect under the collaborate tab and in the reason section under birth vitals, fur further visibility if you wanted.
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Following up to add: on closer inspection of the original record, what was reading as "29" is, I believe, a "20" with ink/print dot making the zero look like a nine. If you look at the other "9's" on the page you will see they have a much smaller loop and much longer tail. This means the age actually matches with the age in the Town Clerk records.
I've made the update to the transcript and the estimated birthdate automatically updates to reflect this, so you should now see an estimated birthdate of 1830.
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