Genealogy by Katherine Pennavaria

Author:Katherine Pennavaria [Pennavaria, Katherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2015-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 4.2. Census record showing enumerator’s misspelling of the name Dundovich.

This man and his spouse were named Mike and Manda Dundovich, but the surname recorded by the enumerator is way off the mark. Whichever of them provided the information for the family, he or she undoubtedly pronounced the surname correctly, yet in this record, the name has morphed into Dudandowicz. The enumerator apparently did not hear the name correctly, so this official record—which is supposed to accurately list every person in the nation—fails to do so in this case, leaving the indexers to transfer the incorrect surname into the searchable database, which they did. Someone looking for the Dundovich family would not retrieve this record without patient searching, unless someone had made a correction.

Transcribers and indexers of the census were also copying many numbers in addition to names and other words, and numbers are notoriously difficult to keep in short-term memory, even for a few microseconds. Numbers are easy to transpose and sometimes difficult to read in handwritten script because, unlike letters—which are parts of words that make sense themselves, even if each letter is not clear—an illegible single digit could be anything from zero to nine. The census records therefore can contain incorrect information and can also be indexed incorrectly. This double whammy of difficulty makes finding those records that have mistakes a real challenge.

Vital Records

The legibility and even comprehensibility of birth, death, and marriage records depended on whether the original record creator could understand the person whose information was being taken down. Genealogists who work with vital records for non-English-speaking immigrants in large cities will be familiar with this problem. For example, in 1905, a recently arrived Italian immigrant gave birth in a Chicago tenement home. The birth attendant was a Polish midwife who lived nearby—no other medical assistance was at hand. Although she had been in the United States longer than her clients, the midwife spoke very little English and not more than a few words of Italian, so communicating with the parents was difficult. The birth record that she created reflects that linguistic barrier (see figure 4.3).

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