"Daniel Morgan" <daniel.f.morgan@gmail.com> wrote in news:1127420240.911151.288520@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com: > Dennis Ahern wrote: >> Has anyone paid to view an actual record? I would assume there is >> some heading that indicates content of the field. Or is it a case of >> where the date of birth field is blank, the index substitues the years >> of service? > > I have bought one where the date in the index was a specific date. On > the actual record, the index date was handwritten in the space next to > the printed words "Date of birth". > > I've never bought one of the ones where the index gives a range of > years. > > For my one-name study, I recognize a lot of the names just from the > index. So far, whenever a specific date is given, it seems to match the > date of birth, allowing some leeway [sic] for the usual misrememberings > and misrepresentations. But when a range is given, the name seems to > match someone born before the beginning of the period, but of a > plausible age to join the navy during the period. I can't identify > everyone yet, but in all the cases where I can, this pattern holds. > > Also, in the cases I've seen, the date ranges always exactly match a > range that the website gives as the covering dates of a particular > class of records. > > By the way, these records are actually quite interesting. The one I got > had a full physical description and a detailed account of which ships > he served in, his repeated transfers from one to the next, and a string > of occasions when he spent in the cells or in gaol in various ports. It > culminated with him spending 40 days in Bodmin gaol and thereafter > being discharged from the navy as undesirable. > The one I have has two records on it, and it seems that the other person, an Englishman, was discharged as undesirable.