Monday, September 14, 2015

Names

Sometimes, you'll be looking at a census manuscript or death certificate and notice that parts of some of the names are missing. Here is what you can do in some of those situations.

The census manuscript says:

Smith, John
Smith, Jane
Smith, baby

Enter the baby in the following manner:

SMITH, (BABY)

The death certificate lists the parents names. (Yea!) But the mother's maiden name is missing. (Boo!) Enter her name in the following manner:

(BLANK), Mary

Can you think of any similar situations? Let us know in the comments.

2 comments:

  1. I use this as a guide for parent names on death certificates:

    On the record Input

    Unknown [nothing, leave it blank]
    ? [nothing, leave it blank]
    ?, First Name (?), First Name
    Last Name, ? Last Name, (?)
    Last Name only Last Name, (BLANK)
    First Name only (BLANK), First Name

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  2. Whoops! My tabs and spacing didn't work on that comment. Hopefully this is easier to read:
    On the Record..................Input
    Unknown...........................[nothing, leave it blank]
    ?........................................[nothing, leave it blank]
    ?, First Name...................(?), First Name
    Last Name, ?...................Last Name, (?)
    Last Name only................Last Name, (BLANK)
    First Name only................(BLANK), First Name

    ReplyDelete