11 April 2013

Is That Ernie?


Transcription is a thankless task and difficult to do.

But one need to keep the time period in mind. Ancestry.com's index lists this name underlined in red as "Ernie Trautvetter." I'm thankful they read the last name as "Trautvetter."

But Ernie as the first name? While I've done no studies, Ernie as a first name in 1864 would be highly suspect, especially for someone born in 1824.

It appears this name should be transcribed as "Emil," which is the correction I submitted.

Another time where ignoring first names while searching is a good idea.

And why when transcribing information it is always good to think about the plausibility of the name being what you think it is. Sometimes getting a "feel" for those old names comes only with practice.

Citation reminder: We are a strong believer in citing genealogical source material in the spirit of Evidence ExplainedHowever, we choose not to include properly formatted citations in these blog posts. There's always enough information in the post to create a citation and full citations are included in my how-to newsletter Casefile Clues.