And just for the record, you can't always trust the head stones either. I found records for my ggrandfather in the Library of the town where he died that gave his death date as 1946. I knew that was wrong because I remember visiting him when I was a child, and I hadn't been born yet in 1946. I went to the cemetery and found his stone....the death date was 1946. I finally found his obituary. He died in 1956. ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Leidy" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 6:13 PM Subject: [VTADDISO] Vermont vitals- as they say, use with care > I've always tried to follow the advice I've heard repeatedly of using the > centralized Vermont vital records with caution- using them as clues for > further research rather than as final proof. Having just returned from > Vermont I have an example to help encourage others to exercise caution in > using such records. > As you are probably aware, the centralized Vermont vital records are > copies that the state requested to have sent to them a number of years ago- > the originals are to be found in the towns themselves. I was researching in > the town of Barre and using Barre's indexed cards- themselves transcribed > from original records. I was looking for early information on the Nichols > family (pre-1850). I found several cards with data on the family that I was > researching, the family of Reuben Nichols. These records were all > transcribed, it turned out, from grave markers in the Elmwood Cemetery in > Barre- transcribed in 1919. Some of the markers can no longer be read, so > in some cases this may be the only record of a particular person's dates. > There were three cards that were of particular help to me. I took down > the information from the cards, and then on a whim decided to go find the > cemetery in question and see what more I could learn about the family. I > was fortunate to locate the graves of this particular family rather quickly, > but was greatly surprised to find that ALL there of the records I'd jotted > down from the transcription cards on file were transcribed incorrectly! > These records are the ones that most people will get when going either to > the city of Barre or the centralized Vermont vital records. What were the > nature of the errors? On one the card gave a death date of 1854 for > Reuben's wife Betsey, listing her as the wife of Reuben. The stone showed > that this Betsey was his daughter, not his wife. There was an index card > with the record of his wife's death, but the card did not list her relation > to Reuben, though the stone clearly labeled her as "consort" of Reuben. > Reuben's death date was given on the index card as 1853, but the stone was > clearly 1863- which matched his age at death when compared to his birth > record. > Three out of three...all mistranscribed. It certainly gave me pause once > again and caused me to repeat to our lists the advice we hear so often- > don't trust centralized, transcribed records; make every effort to verify > with the original when possible! John Leidy > > > ==== VTADDISO Mailing List ==== > To subscribe or unsubscribe from this list use the following: > [email protected] > Put either the word, subscribe, or unsubscribe in the subject line and body of the message. > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > >