Hints on tracing your ancestry!

[sharpdressedscot]

Thanks, I hope this helps in my quest to find the Holy Gra- er, I mean to find my ancestor's ancestors.

[sirdaniel1975]

Letters and Numbers


As many of you know when your researching your families roots you’re often stumped as to why sometimes names have been misspelled or dates are commonly recorded wrong in the digitized records. This can be a nightmare for the novice at genealogy. The first time researcher will often overlook a digitized record because he/she feels the record is not one of their ancestors. They’ll say, “My family doesn’t spell our name that way, or that’s not him/her, the abt is off by 40 years.”

I encounter some misread, misspelling, or mistyped documentation for most records all the time. That’s the honest truth. Below is a diagram of handwriting samples from www.ancestry.com .


It’s easy to see how some letters can look like others and how some letters even look like numbers. Just imagine how hard the people who digitized these original records by typing out the info into a computer filing program.

Next I will show a series of examples of numbers and script handwriting from 1841 census records around the UK. The first one is from Wales and 6 people are shown in the sample provided. I had looked up the name “Williams” being it’s similar to mine and I know it’s commonly used in Wales. Now, the sample provided are not the “Williams” folk that was listed on the census record. The names on the left side are fairly legible, most of the ages list are except the last one which is smudged. The words on the right are their professions which in my opinion are illegible.



Notice the 2’s are faded towards the bottom of the number. The ones with a big curly loop will appears as 9’s over time. The first person who is 23 years old, that might look like a 1 or a 7 over time. I’m sure that the last number is a 25 and I‘m referring to the last person. As you can see, the nightmare is a reality.



The above samples in this record are from 1841 Buckinghamshire, England census. I looked up my grandmother’s maiden name Rodwell. The people shown in the example are not Rodwell’s, just on the same page. Notice how distinctively different the 3’s, 5’s, 6 and 8 are.



The Above sample is from the 1841 Isle of Man census. I looked up the name “Mann” and most hits were “Munn”. All these numbers have a unique style being a different person wrote them and the location is a factor as well.



This is the Wales record again. Notice the differences…..



Another Wales sample here.. Look at this really good..



Look at the 8 in this Wales record. If the top loop fades, it will be a 6. The seven looks more like a 1, the only reason one knows it’s not, there is a 1 that proceeds it.



Look at the eight again, it’s from the English record from before. Under the right age conditions, it could become a 7 or a weird looking 3.

I will continue with the number issue much more. Personally, I’m not very good at reading script/cursive. I rarely write in this for that reason. People just aren’t very distinctive with it and all the letters tend to look the same to me.



This is still the English record. Look how similar the 3 and the 5’s are. The 2 in the 20 could appear as a 1 or a 7.

[sirdaniel1975]

This is from the Wales record. Here’s a perfect example of fading. Susana, is she 23 or 25 years old? Now you know why an abt of +/- 2 years search parameter is so important. I personally think it’s a 25.



Just look at the above row of numbers, see in the light areas where the fading will occur in this style font.



I searched endlessly trying to find a six written this way, which I have seen before. Under the right negative circumstances, this 6 can appear as several different numbers. Here’s my example:



3/5 1/7

I hope that this will not detour any of you from continuing your research. It should only help you in your efforts.