If there’s one thing a genealogist should be able to rely on it’s that the information on official vital records (birth, marriage, death) will always be correct. Right? Wrong. These records are created by humans and we all know humans make mistakes.
But a vital record with an error in it is considered correct for legal purposes even if you absolutely know it’s incorrect. There are procedures established where an error in a vital record can be corrected but there is a hefty fee and you must have solid proof of the requested change before it will be done. Most people just live with the error.
With modern birth records the sex of the child, name, birth date and names of parents are almost always correct but errors crept into earlier records. I’ve seen errors in parents’ and child’s names, even occasionally the wrong sex when a busy doctor hurriedly filled out the form. I’ve written before that my maternal grandfather’s birthplace varies on his children’s birth records, half say Detroit, Maine, half say Troy, Maine and I assume he was the original source of all the records.
You would think a marriage record would be correct, after all the couple answers the questions asked. But I’ve found misspelled names and incorrect information. One of my cousins gave the wrong name for her mother! Her birth mother died soon after the cousin was born and she was raised by her stepmother so she probably just gave her stepmother’s name without thinking. However, this sort of error can result in weeks of pursuing the wrong woman’s family tree. I knew it was wrong because I knew when the birth mother died and knew the cousin’s birthdate but someone else might not.
Death records are tricky. The name of deceased, death date, place, and cause of death will almost certainly be right. The other information is given by an informant and they often get things wrong. For example, my second great-grandmother’s death record shows her father’s given name was Samuel instead of Royal. That error sent me researching the wrong man and wondering why nothing seemed to connect. I researched her siblings’ records and discovered the mistake but not until after weeks of fruitless research. This was learning the hard way to research others in the family. I had just started genealogy and it was a lesson never forgotten.
Another error I discovered was a woman’s maiden name listed as Proctor not Porter. And, sadly I’ve found dozens of errors on so-called official records.
The common link among all of these errors is the human factor. People under emotional stress make mistakes. When my mother died in surgery I ended up listing some wrong information on her death record and I’m a genealogist and should have known better. My advice is if you find something on a vital record that doesn’t seem to make sense broaden your search to see if you can verify it or not.
Sadly, just because it’s official doesn’t mean it’s correct.
Columnist Nancy Battick of Dover-Foxcroft has researched genealogy for over 30 years. She is past president of the Maine Genealogical Society. Reader emails are welcome at nbattick@roadrunner.com. Her semimonthly column is sponsored by the Aroostook County Genealogical Society which meets the fourth Monday of the month except in July and December at the Caribou Library at 6:30 p.m. Guests are always welcome. FMI contact Edwin “J” Bullard at 492-5501.
