52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 37 Prompt - Mistake

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 37

Prompt – Mistake

In genealogy, family trees can be full of mistakes. It is important to back up your work with quality sources. I heard in one of my genealogical meetings that a family tree without sources is just fiction. Genealogist suggest that there are two types of sources – primary and secondary. Primary is that document that is recorded at the time of the event. Secondary is that document that is written after the fact and thus probably more prone to mistakes. For example, a birth registration may be a primary source for the birth whereas a delayed birth certificate is considered secondary.

My father-in-law's birth certificate is an example of a primary source gone wrong. We celebrated Tony's birthday on January 11. It was several years after Bill and I were married that I found out that he actually had two birth dates.

Tony like everyone else at the time was born on the farm. Birth registration had to take place within a certain time frame. Thus I guess it would often fall on the father's shoulder to go into town to register that birth. Tony's father, Rochus Hoffart had gone into town to register the birth. I have heard two versions of the ending of this story. The first story is that due to language barrier; he being of Romanian descent with very little English, misunderstood the question of date of birth. The other story is that he had gone into town and celebrated the birth of his son with a few drinks and the locals and got the date wrong. Which story is more fun to tell?

All of Tony's official documents state his birthday as January 16, 1923. His birth certificate, passport and funeral documents as well as obituaries have this date.Tony's parents - Rochus and Marion have a family bible where all the childrens' births are written in it. The handwriting looks somewhat different every time an entry was made thus I believe it to be recorded within the reasonable time of the birth. The German Script is difficult to read.

Rochus and Marion's Bible Entry of Births - Anton (Tony) Is Next to Blue Star

Thus his real birth date and the one celebrated was January 11, but since the birth certificate was registered January 16^th it was just easier to keep all the official documents the same.

Bill's mother, Clara, had an issue with her name on her birth certificate. In the 1960's Clara decided to get one of those plastic wallet size birth registration cards. She received it with the name of Clara Caroline Jahnke. Her middle name was actually Carolina. She had to take a picture (not a photo copy) of her baptismal certificate and send it off to vital statistics so that they could correct it. The bureaucratic office told her that there was a cost involved to get it changed. Clara made her case that it was not her fault but a probable transcription error. It was with some glee that Clara told me that they corrected it at no cost.

Bill's maternal grandmother, Ida Anna Bachmann had a similar birth certificate mix-up. In the fall of 1933, Arthur, Ida and their 3 children; Elsie, Herb and Clara moved down to the States to take up orchard farming. In preparation for this move, Ida needed to get her birth certificate. She ordered it and found out that she was registered as Edith Anna Bachmann when in fact she was named Ida Anna Bachmann. Clara feels that because of the thick German accent it was written down incorrectly. Ida would be pronounced as “Eda” and thus was likely written down as Edith. In order for this correction to be made Ida had to send her baptismal certificate. She never got her baptismal certificate back but the birth registration was corrected.

Other documents such as census, border crossing and passenger lists are notorious for false information and mistakes. My grandmother Mary McLaughlin, maiden name was Krikau. In a 1913 failed border crossing list an the 1916 Canada Census her last name was listed as Krikan. In this case I think it was a transcription error because when I look at the original, I see Krikau. In a 1921 Canada census their family was listed as Krikow. In this case I think is was how it was written. Consider that the census takers are writing the names as they would sound to the ear. However even my grandmother's marriage registration was written out as Krikow.

Border Crossing Document of Krikau Family

The Transcription of The Above Document

I guess I can see how the "u" in Krikau could be mistaken for "n".

1921 Canada Census For Andreas Krikau Family

Transcription of Misspelled Name

Part of Mary Krikau Wedding Registration. The Name Was Written as it Sounded

In a previous blog I talked about my grandmother McLaughlin's gravestone. It is spelled McLauhlin and not the correct spelling of McLaughlin.

In this case it was only discovered when I was on a cemetery search for my ancestors. I stopped by the office to find where she was buried and they could not find her in their directory. They did come up with a McLaughlin spelled as above. I went to check it out and it was her and her second husband's gravestone. The mistake, I assume was the engravers. I must have been one of the few people that actually gone out to her grave after her gravestone was put on. My mom and dad died before her and her son and daughter in law lived in Ontario and had not been back to see her grave. It is a mistake that is written in stone. I wonder if future family genealogists will see this and wonder if that is the actual spelling of her name?

We all make mistakes. Genealogy mistakes are more of a nuisance than anything else. It puts us through our paces to check out what we already thought we knew. In some of the above instances I have gained a respect for an ancestor whose language is not native to their adopted land and what they had to go through to be understood.

Wendy