Family History Society Transcriptions

[Diane Grant-Salmon]

I know that these are done by volunteers and I'm curious as to whether each Society, decides what information to include or not include on them.

If anyone has purchased any Burial transcriptions, will you please tell me what info you were given ....... name, date etc?

[Peter Goodey]

There are a lot of things could be said about this. To my mind, a transcript should be just that - a copy of eveything in the PR. If it's described as an index, you should only expect to find enough information to help you find the original entry.

[Brian]

Hello Diane,
I am transcribing for the Forest of Dean Website. Our template came from Gloucester Record Office and we make a complete copy - including any errors/crossing out etc. I would hope that others do the same.

[Guy Etchells]

Most family history societies only make an abstract of the records they transcribe.
This means they leave out what they decide is un-important information (perhaps vicar's name in registers etc.).

Unfortunately in some cases knowing the vicar came from a different parish could provide a lead as could knowing the officiating minister was a non-conformist.

Having said that I take the view that although I would prefer having full transcriptions, an abstract is better than an index, which is better than nothing at all. ;)
Cheers
Guy

[Diane Grant-Salmon]

Hi Peter,

Many thanks for your reply.

I received a booklet for burials recently, which lists only surname, forenames, date of burial (and age in some cases). In respect of the females, particularly when no age is listed, it's very hard with a 'common' forename, to work out whether they were single or married.

Details of a lot of these burials, I obtained from Wakefield Archives in the 1990's, these have more information ........ daughter/wife/widow of whoever, so I couldn't understand why these details weren't shown on these transcriptions.

The web site publications say Burials, so I thought the transcriptions would be in full ...... no mention of an index, but that is what the booklet says on the front cover - Index of Burials.

Not to worry though. My husband bought me a microfiche reader last week and my first microfiche order, was sent to Wakefield Archives the following day.

These burials will be added to my already long list for future orders! :)

[Mutley]

Hello Diane,
I have the OXF-WAN02 Oxfordshire Parish Registers. For burials it says at the front that names have been transcribed as originally recorded and the spellings have been followed slavishly.

In the 1500's it is just a name and date and the minister's initials.
In the 1600's it starts to give maybe child. infant, a householder or similar.
In the 1700 - 1900's an age is added. Occasionally the parents of a child, cause of death or of 'and another named parish is given'. Sometimes with an infant a baptism date is in brackets. By now the minister's name is recorded.
There are also notes in brackets to say a page is missing or similar.

I would say that they have recorded it exactly as it was in the original register.
The index is just a surname and a list of the years that have that name recorded but because of spelling variations you should trawl right through the register and can sometimes be really lucky to pick up a tidbit of extra information.

Regards, Mutley

[Diane Grant-Salmon]

Hi Brian,

Well I never! I typed out my reply to Peter in Notepad, when his message turned up in my inbox, then came here and read your message, before submitting my response to him.

I followed the link you gave ...... it's wonderful! I read all about the project and you are all to be congratulated for this marvellous achievement. :)

In respect of the 'cut price' microfiche at 50p, that's a very good deal ..... mind you, I'm very happy with my discounted price from Wakefield Archives. £1.20 per fiche, including VAT and P&P ........ 80p with single orders of 50 fiche or more. ;)

[Diane Grant-Salmon]

Having said that I take the view that although I would prefer having full transcriptions, an abstract is better than an index, which is better than nothing at all. ;)
Cheers
Guy

Hi Guy,

Oh yes, I do agree with you. When one cannot access any Record Offices in person ...... any little crumb contributes to a slice of bread! :D

[Diane Grant-Salmon]

Hi Mutley,

Thanks for your response too, it's nice to know that you have the full information from the PR's. :)

Luckily, all of my Mum's Yorkshire lot, are to be found in just four Parishes and one of those is quite small, 'coming under' one of my other three Parishes for quite some time, this being the 'Mother' Church.

I won't have to buy all the microfiche for all these Parishes ..... just the missing info years! :D

[Terry]

When I do my OPC transcriptions I try to include all information except the name of the vicar- if a note is too long then I put a "Refer to register" note.
The Devon FHS calls its database an index, but in the case of burials it does include surname, first names, age, date, notes and parish name.

[Diane Grant-Salmon]

Hi Terry,

That's very good of you, to include as much information as you can. :)

There is a little note in this booklet which reads:

The information listed is sufficient only to identify the person concerned. In many cases, extra information, such as occupation, cause of death or names of relatives, is available on a database on the Society's computer and can be provided at a small charge in the Society's premises, or by application to our Librarian there.

Seeing as I was charged £1.25, for each Essex baptism entry look-up a few years ago, I'm not even going to bother asking them for a price. I'm now working through my files and I have managed to tie-in a good many of the female burials so far, thanks to their last appearance on census returns and FreeBMD entries listed as possible deaths for them.

I'm only stuck with burials 1813-1892, so the ones I can't manage to trace, I'll buy the microfiche. ;)

[BeeE586]

You are lucky ! I was chrged £5 to confirm a single burial from a southern county which shall remain nameless. I found out no more than I had discovered from a submitted IGI entry which gave Name, Date and Place of Burial, all of which information I supplied. I suppose it was cheaper than actually travelling to Her .... Oops, sorry.

Eileen

[Diane Grant-Salmon]

Today, whilst extracting my FAWCETT names from indexes of burials, which are in eight booklets altogether ...... I was about to throw a party in celebration, as during the years 1790-1813, not a single member of the family died! :)

When the penny dropped that this 'can't be right', I glanced at the names which are in alphabetical order. Straight from DURRANS to FAWTHORP, then another glance to the bottom of the page, to find that a page is missing. No prizes for guessing the page number, 13 of course! :D

I'll contact my FHS about the problem, nicely of course, as everyone makes mistakes. Perhaps it's not their fault at all, maybe the firm who does their printing had a bad day. I just hope that they can send me a copy of page 13 from their database.

[Diane Grant-Salmon]

To quote Richard Wilson, from *One foot in the grave* ...... I don't believe it!

Booklet 1876-1905, surnames FARRAR then straight to FLETCHER ...... yes, page 13 is missing again, along with my lot. |sad1|

I've checked the rest and at least they have pages numbered 13.

[BeeE586]

It must always be borne in mind that registers vary in the amount of information they give, and even within a particular parish it can vary with a change of incumbent or parish clerk. I have family from Chesterfield and for a good many years in the early 1700's there is nothing but the name - no age, not son or daughter or wife of, no place of residence - just a name, which tends to make things difficult in connecting families.

By contrast, I am currently transcribing North Wingfield for a similar time span - 1727 to 1751 - and it gives all those details (except age) also including widow or widower.

A transcriber can only copy what is given.

Eileen

[Diane Grant-Salmon]

|wave| Eileen,

Yes, I do realise that tracing burials and *finding* the correct person is very difficult, even the information on microfiche for burials can be sketchy. When I visited the Archives years ago, there were a lot of burials in Thornhill which I never managed 'to trace'.

Birstall Parish is very big and I can't afford to buy all the microfiche for it, so I purchased the indexes to use as a guide. A few of my lot have unusual names, for example, Eli and Israel ...... so I can trace those easily enough.

When I've worked through them all, I shall have a fair idea of which years to purchase on microfiche, so that I can see the extra details which indexes don't give.

[Diane Grant-Salmon]

Well, full marks for express service! :D

I wrote an e-mail to the data base chappie and sent a carbon copy of it to the publications section, requesting scanned copies of the two missing pages if possible. This morning I received profuse apologies from both, along with the scanned copies and a big *Thank You* for telling them so quickly!

Apparently, the printers are at fault, so they are doing a re-print at their own cost. ;)

[apehangmom]

Hey the ( Archelogy data service... (British)Had a study done of the CHristchurch.. Okay I looked for 15 minuntes in my bookmarks but couldnt find the report.. This was facinating reading..( what happened was the scientist took the graves in the church and did a full history on as many of the dead in opened or distroyed caskets.... I am thinking that they are within 50 mile range from giggleswick. )AS I AM UNSURE as knowing that where I live that sometimes churches are named the same.. ANd unsure if CHRISTCHURCH is only one or there is one in every parrish.. BUT ANYWAY the patrons of the church or buried folk were of the silk and cloth manufacturing guilds.. The scientist took the opned caskets looked and charted the clothing... the bones were analized ,, the towns folk also brought in an entire family history on the dead. This is to carry on where the dead stopped. It was so facinating . But the report was of the history of the dead person to what they ate to what condition the bones were in to how they lived... I think that this is something worth seeing for the genealogist who is thinking that they have family buried in this church. I willlook further and find it . But I do know that the ARCHELOGICAL DATA SERVICE Has many intersting collections of churches that coincide with genealogy .. that goes with our conversation.. thanks chris