Original documents versus transcriptions
Karen K | Saturday, December 17, 2011 FamilySearch.org is probably my favorite go-to site for genealogical research on the web; not only do they have tons of records that you can't find anywhere else, but they also often provide images of the original documents as opposed to just electronic transcriptions of them.
Original documents or images of them are preferable to transcriptions for a couple of reasons:
Firstly, they are more reliable. Records that have been electronically transcribed were done so by human beings, for whom English is not a first language in some cases (Ancestry.com has much of their transcription work done in China).
Example of an error that can occur in transcription: a transcribed census record from Ancestry.com lists one of my ancestors as being 70 years old, but when an image of the actual census was pulled up and examined, his age was found to be listed as 30, not 70.
Secondly, transcriptions often leave out information contained in the original documents.
I had a transcribed death record for my 3rd great-grandfather William Winslow, but checked back yesterday to find that FamilySearch.org now has the original record available. I clicked on it, and was able to see the cause of William Winslow's death, which was... ahem... "intemperance and exposure."
;)
;)
So I now know that Great-great-great grandfather William was probably staggering home after a few too many at a local pub or something when he passed out in the freezing February snow and never awoke.
Not a terribly flattering vignette of my ancestor, perhaps, but it's one that I wouldn't have if I relied on a transcription instead of the actual document.
Reader Comments (4)
Karen,
The "original document" you are claiming is really an extraction from the Kingston Town record books that a clerk filled out some time after the event. Therefore:
* The Original Source is the handwritten town record made at the time of the event.
* The Kingston town record card you show above is a Derivative Source made some time after the original town record.
* The FamilySearch extraction that is indexed by FamilySearch is a third generation Derivative Source of the original town record.
The FamilySearch indexed record is very useful as a finding aid to point you toward the town record card which should point you to the Original Source which you can probably find at the Kingston NH town clerk's office and probably on FHL microfilm.
Sorry to be such a stickler on this, but many researchers have learned to go find the Original Source record so that you can be sure that the information you have is as accurate as possible. Of course, the information in that original source may be wrong!
Randy, thanks for coming over and commenting and for the clarification.
My wording was poor-- I shouldn't have used "original." I know that these N.H. records were filled out later (around the turn of the 20th century). What I meant was that they were the "original" documents that the transcriptions were made from. Again, bad wording on my part.
I was wondering if there were more "original" sources than these available, so I really appreciate you letting me and anyone else reading this know!
Please don't be a stranger here.
Hi Karen - I always feel a sort of disappointment when I can't view an original document. There's something about seeing the original handwriting, the yellowed paper. . . . When I first traced one of my lines to mid-19th century Montreal, I was delighted to find lots of ancestors in the Drouin Collection. The original church records, showing baptisms, marriages, and deaths, are scanned in, signatures and all. In most cases, these are the only signatures I have for this line of my mid-19th century family. I agree with you on the quality of the indexes - my 3rd great-grandfather's age was recorded as 11 rather than 71 for the 1861 Canada East census. That's quite a difference!
Ryan, I know what you mean-- it's so cool to see the old handwriting.
As Randy Seaver pointed out, these aren't actually ORIGINAL, as these were filled out a little over 100 years ago,, but they are still better than transcriptions.
Now that I know that the actual original documents might be available on microfilm, and now that I just discovered that there's a FamilySearch Center (which is also a Mormon church) close to me, I'll visit in January; they are closed until January 4th. I'm on vacation now, so this would have been a great time to go, but alas...