Her Chicago Birth Is Indexed Twice--That Has to Be Wrong!

It would appear on the surface that two entries for the same person in an index would be at best a duplication and, at worst, a mistake.

In this situation, the reality is somewhere in between. 

A search for Lillian Apgar in the "Cook County, Illinois, Birth Certificates Index, 1871-1922" resulted in two entries--both with dates of birth as 2 March 1910 and parents as William and Mary.

The "more about" screen for the first entry provided the following information.

The second one showed the following and contains more information. The names of the parents are the same except the maiden name of the mother is one word on the second entry.  

The FHL film number from which the index entries were created is different.I searched for the film numbers on the FHL catalog to see what microfilmed records were used to create the index entries.

The first FHL film number indicated that the first index entry was made from abstracting the birth register.

The film number for the second indicates that the information for that entry was taken from the birth certificate as shown below.

Yes, the entries are for the same person. But they are not entries made from the exact same record. One entry is made from the birth certificates and the other is made from the birth register. The birth certificates are filed in a bound volume with one certificate per page. The birth register is a ledger that has one or more lines devoted to each birth.

If I had bothered to read the section on the "original data"

• "Illinois, Cook County Birth Certificates, 1878–1922." Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2009. Illinois. Cook County Birth Certificates, 1878–1922. Illinois Department of Public Health. Division of Vital Records, Springfield.
• "Illinois. Cook County Birth Registers, 1871–1915." Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah. Illinois. Cook County Birth Registers, 1871–1915. Illinois Department of Public Health. Division of Vital Records, Springfield.

the potential reason for the duplicate entries might have been surmised. FamilySearch and Ancestry.com do get things tangled up upon occasion. This is not one of those times.

Lessons and reminders:

• Learn what you are actually searching.
• Be aware of multiple records. In this case the register does not contain as much detail as the certificate. And even a record that is less detailed may be easier to read than another one.
• Cite specifically. If I just list this as "Lillian Apgar birth information" in my sources--I can't tell whether I saw the record or the register. There's a reason why being specific in a citation is advised. 

Note:

As mentioned before, we believe in citing information in the spirit of Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence Explained. However my editoral policy on this blog is not to include citations as a part of each blog post. We do however include enough information in each post to obtain the original item or to craft a citation (if you think I haven't, please email me and I'll rectify it). We realize others include citations as a part of each blog post, but there are only so many hours in the day. My newsletter, Casefile Clues, does contain complete citations to any items referenced in that work 

Don't Be Indifferent About Transcriptions

Several years ago, I wrote about a 1922  baptismal entry from a Roman Catholic church in Chicago, Illinois. There were several conclusions based upon the transcription of that entry that I received from the church, along with other information I had from the family. Those conclusions were partially based upon the belief that the transcript (shown below) was complete:

The conclusions will not be stated here in their entirety, but essentially I concluded that Theodore Hoontes (an uncle of Anna Apgar by marriage) had traveled from Clinton County, New York, to be at the baptism and that the baptism had been performed in 1922 in preparation for the mother's marriage later that year in the Roman Catholic church.

Not exactly.

The transcript that I received was not complete.The records of this church were some that were recently released by FamilySearch on their website in their collection of Roman Catholic records from the City of Chicago.

Anna was baptized on the same day as her older siblings, Elizabeth, Lillian, and Louis Apgar. That detail was not on the transcription. And, the notation in the baptismal entry(made by the priest) indicated that the children had been attending school when it was discovered they were not baptized and that "the Sisters" had encouraged them to be baptized. The notation continues to say that the godfather Theodore Hoontes was not present at the baptism and that "Mrs. Esther McCasland," sister of the mother of the children, acted as sponsor. Mrs. Apgar is referred to by the priest as an "indifferent Catholic." She and Mr. Apgar were married by a Justice of the Peace in 1909 and he left the family in 1916.

Based upon this statement, my theory about the timing of the baptism will need to be revised. My theory that Hoontes was visiting Chicago at the time of the baptism is incorrect as well.

Lessons

Transcriptions can be incomplete and any conclusions that are based on transcriptions are always subject to revisions.

The Genealogy Proof Standard indicates that any "fact" is always subject to revision--particularly if additional information comes to light.

Partial 1920 Census Index Free at Family Search

FamilySearch's Pilot Site recently released a partial index to the 1920 census. I am always glad when datasets get a new index, especially when it is a census year where I have had difficulty finding someone.

I have been looking for Anna Apgar/Verikios in the 1920 census since shortly after my wife and I got married. Anna is my wife's grandmother and was born in Illinois in 1913--likely in Chicago. I have searched for her to no avail. She was likely born Anna Apgar, the daughter of William and Marie/Mary Desmarais/Demar Apgar. Her parents split ca. 1918 and by 1920 her mother was in a relationship with Peter Verikios. I have searched for Anna as:

• Anna Apgar/Apker, etc.
• Anna Demar/Desmarais
• Anna Verikios

Throughout the entire state of Illinois, trying all variants of these three last names that I could think of. All to no avail. Consequently I was excited when FamilySearch released their 1920 census index that includes Illinois. Maybe I would find her. Again, no such luck.

There is a remote chance that Anna was in New York State in 1920--which is where her mother was born and where her mother had siblings living. I will hold off on any more creative searches until New York State has been included in the index at Family Search. Maybe one day I will find her.

Some Chicago Marriage Licenses on Family Search's Pilot Site

It seems like it is harder and harder to keep up with all the information available on Family Search's Pilot site.





Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, marriages are being added to the records site at Family Search. This is a work in progress, which is clearly indicated on the site.



It made it so easy to locate these records (which I admittedly already had). The marriages shown in this post are for Lewis Demars and Laura Noll in 1901 and for Mary Demar and William Frame Apgar in 1909. Lewis is the father of Mary. Mary and her husband are my wife's great-grandparents. William Apgar "evaporates" around 1918.

No going to the courthouse, no writing a letter, no paying a fee. This is really nice. Now I just have to have time to search for other family members and wait for the site to expand its offerings of these records.






Those who have time can volunteer to help with the indexing of records at Family Search as well. You do not have to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to participate in the indexing program.

The Cook County, Illinois, marriage records currently online at Familysearch can be searched on their site.

At the time of this writing records on the site were from 1900 through 1920.

The Importance of Going One Step at a Time

There is a reason that genealogists are told to work from the present to the past and not to "skip around."

My wife's great-grandfather is William Apgar, born around 1888 in Chicago. I spent hours looking at Apgar families in 1880 and in 1900 (and in city directories), trying to get an idea of who his parents could be.

Turns out Apgar was not his last name after all--it was a last name he took upon his marriage for reasons I am not entirely aware of. His marriage record and a 1910 census enumeration, along with some other information made it clear that his name at birth was actually William Frame. All that time spent looking for Apgars was for naught. Had I worked on him in more detail initially in the 1909-1920 time frame, I would have realized this and not spent so much time looking for the wrong family.

And for those who wonder if Apgar was a name in William's background, the answer is no. It appears he simply chose the name from somewhere other than his own family history.