Agree with everything Shirley said. In one of my families, the female went by a name completely foreign to her everyday life. Her name was Theresa Margaret, on her marriage license she put Margrette. Later in life, we found that she thought she was of French descent so she spelled it the French way when applying for the license. She admits it freely and never went by the spelling again. Another case, Jonathan Monroe Stewart, went by Monroe Stewart on his license, but was never known or called Monroe, he was "Doc" or Jon. So even though it is possible for transcribers to enter errors or misread, it is also possible that your family just went weird at the moment <grin>. Having entered many records myself I will admit to errors infrequently, but don't be in a hurry to blame the transcriber. Just be glad that someone did put the record online. I wish I could find more online records for my families. I seem to zero out in most cases because the County I am searching does not have much of anything online. Greene and Central IL Counties are covered with resources online, more than any that I know of. Remember the MAGA site at where you will find much on Greene Co. at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilmaga/p2index.html Mary Ann At 11:55 AM 02/20/2001 -0600, you wrote: >As someone who has entered over 200,000 records myself, I can provide the >following information: > >Some county records are entered from microfilm copies of actual licenses - >some counties from microfilm copies of marriage registers - not sure which >was used for Greene however > >It is not at all uncommon for names to be entered either on the register >or on licenses in this manner - probably these individuals went by the >names you see and that is what was given. > >On the majority of licenses (when entering from the license) it is quite >common (over 50% of the time) for the name to be written two different >ways with two different spellings on the same license - one above where >the license was filled in when issued and a different way on the bottom >when the actual marriage took place. > >Thirdly - Marriage records are like all other records, the individuals >creating the records were not well educated and tended to spell names as >they sounded (a good reason for checking every possible spelling you can >think of) when searching for someone. > >and lastly - the original writing is difficult (most of the time) to make >out - the fact that the volunteers are working from microfilm rather than >original records makes it that much more difficult to read. > >I could be wrong, but I'm almost willing to bet that the records the >volunteer worked from showed the names as you find them in the data base - >we make every effort to enter them correctly - mistakes do happen, but >there are far more errors in the original records than result from entry >errors. > >You wrote: > > >I agree this is a very good site. But I just checked it for some known > >family records and found that in two cases the first name for two >different > >family members was not the same as in my records. > >Example: James Arthur Davis (mt 1. Rosanna Pruitt, 2.Margaret Rawlins, > >3.Amanda Denham) is listed as Arthur Davis. > > > >And Mary Amanda Davis, mt. John Eveland, is listed as Amanda Davis. > > > >Now this could mean one of two things: either the person went by their > >middle name or the records were entered incorrectly. > > > >Does anyone know? > >Thanks. > >Lois > > > >---------- > >>From: [email protected] > >>To: [email protected] > >>Subject: Re: Marriage Index > >>Date: Tue, Feb 20, 2001, 11:01 AM > >> > > > >> In a message dated 2/18/01 7:58:13 PM Eastern Standard Time, >[email protected] > >> writes: > >> > >> << try this one > >> >http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/genealogy/marrsrch.h >tml > >> > >>>> > >> > >> WOW, This is great site. THANKS for sharing. > >> Elaine > >> > >> > >> ==== ILGREENE Mailing List ==== > >> Search this list's archived messages! > >> http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl > >> > > > > > >==== ILGREENE Mailing List ==== > >List problems? First, read the Welcome Message that you received > >when you subscribed. Feel free to contact Donna Kilroy, > >list administrator with questions concerning this list! > >mailto:[email protected] > > > >==== ILGREENE Mailing List ==== >Visit the Greene County USGenWeb Homepage! >http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilgreene/green.htm CONVERSE CONNECTIONS http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~converse/index.html CONVERSE MAIL LIST Administrator MY FAMILY GENEALOGY http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~makaylor/index.html KAYLOR MAIL LIST Administrator TEDROW MAIL LIST Administrator "Friends are quiet angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly!"