Genealogy Chat

Yes, just shows you, doesn't it - in fact i have found numerous errors with transcribed records - in one case the date was out by around 20 years as it had been miss- transcribed i.e. 1846 instead of 1864.....!

The submitted records that you do need to be careful with are where the year of birth has been estimated on a marriage submission. Quite often it is simply 21 years earlier. The marriage date is likely to be accurate, but treat the yob with suspicion.

Have found my 3 x great grandfather Thomas turned into a girl named Susanna on an extracted IGI record - when looking at a microfiche copy of the original PRs could see the transcriber had managed to amalgamate two separate entries.

Yes, Moonbeam, I also have one. The year of marriage was mistranscribed as 1889, when it was actually 1898.

Submitted records were all there was for most of Cheshire on the old IGI - so I bought myself CDs of parish registers from specific churches - and most of the submitted records proved to be correct.

I don't dismiss anything, note it down, and check when and where I can.

As IGP says, these submitters could be as relaible as you and me.

I always say take submitted entries "under advisement"

..... same for much of the information on ancestry trees!


note down what the entries say, but don't add the information to your tree until and unless you can confirm them


A complete date for marriage / birth / death is an indication the the original entry or certificate has been seen

............... but "ca 1855" is a dead giveaway that a guess has been made, made to fit the facts!





sylvia