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Tis true. My Grandfather Victor was listed as Valentine on one document. I had to get them to put a corrective note on it. Thankfully I have other records, including the family Bible to back me up
Are you referring to the regular subscription or the library version? -- That is the point of the initial question, since it seems like many folks who have the full subscription believe it is great! --- Has anyone had the same 'great' experience with the library version? ... or is the problem I am having finding much meaningful data -- limited to the library version?
Are you referring to the regular subscription or the library version? -- That is the point of the initial question, since it seems like many folks who have the full subscription believe it is great! --- Has anyone had the same 'great' experience with the library version? ... or is the problem I am having finding much meaningful data -- limited to the library version?
It still hasn't been established if the library version is even limited or not. I recommend you sign up for the 14 day free trial to find out. 14 days should be plenty of time to do some searches and see if you can find any obvious difference between them. Alternatively, you can also sign up for only a month or two and then cancel your subscription. It doesn't have to be so expensive, you don't have to sign up for eternity.
In going back to the original question, there is no such thing as a perfect data base. All of the information that you find online has been read, sometimes translated, and indexed by a human. Humans make mistakes, and those mistakes become part of the "official" records.
You have to learn to work around this. One of my ancestors had the given name of Bettine. In one data base, it appears as Vettine. That was clearly a keystroke error by the human being who was keying in the data (look at your keyboard - the B and the V are next to each other).
In another instance, a female ancestor's given name was Harriet. I found one instance of her with the name Hattie, and yet another with the name Dolly. They were all the same person - she just decided to call herself different names through the years.
This is what makes genealogy a challenge. You will always encounter hurdles like this, but it is still a rewarding experience for me.
In another instance, a female ancestor's given name was Harriet. I found one instance of her with the name Hattie, and yet another with the name Dolly. They were all the same person - she just decided to call herself different names through the years.
Well, not necessarily... there are a lot of reasons the names may be different. For starters, Hattie is a nickname for Harriet so it makes sense that both forms were used interchangeably at different times. She may have gone by Hattie but sometimes it was assumed to use full names on documentation. Whenever I see nicknames used, I enter them in quotes like: Martha "Matty" Fallows.
Also, if it was a census, the enumerator may have simply misheard or possibly your ancestors weren't home and so a neighbor, who didn't know them very well, gave the info about them and got the name wrong. Either one would explain where the random "Dolly" came from. It's not necessarily a case of the individual calling themselves by different names through the years.
Well, not necessarily... there are a lot of reasons the names may be different. For starters, Hattie is a nickname for Harriet so it makes sense that both forms were used interchangeably at different times. She may have gone by Hattie but sometimes it was assumed to use full names on documentation. Whenever I see nicknames used, I enter them in quotes like: Martha "Matty" Fallows.
Also, if it was a census, the enumerator may have simply misheard or possibly your ancestors weren't home and so a neighbor, who didn't know them very well, gave the info about them and got the name wrong. Either one would explain where the random "Dolly" came from. It's not necessarily a case of the individual calling themselves by different names through the years.
Let me tell you about Lavina Antoinette.
Her last name was transcribed wrong in various places from her marriage license.
Her last name was transcribed wrong, in a county cemetery book, from her gravestone, which actually did have her maiden surname, thank goodness! The sad thing about that is that one of the cemetery surveyors was related to her.
I spent tons of time looking for her in census records under two surnames that were both wrong.
Lavina was transcribed wrong from one census: "Favina".
In the next census, she was "Antonett".
She signed her will "L. A."
She was Nettie in her obituary.
I did a happy dance when I actually saw her gravestone with her full name on it, although it has "Antoinett L."
The lady obviously preferred Antoinett(e) to Lavina.
Are you referring to the regular subscription or the library version? -- That is the point of the initial question, since it seems like many folks who have the full subscription believe it is great! --- Has anyone had the same 'great' experience with the library version? ... or is the problem I am having finding much meaningful data -- limited to the library version?
In the absence of a response to my initial question (Difference between free Library version and Subscription version), I've gone back to the Library version. After a few visits, I got on the 'census'-trail of my ancestors and (except for one gap in the mid 1700's) have been quite satisfied with the results. Meanwhile, my son has taken the 'trial Subscription' route and, after a few sessions, felt that he had found everything Ancestry.com had to offer. The bottom line is that it looks like the 'free Library version' is as good as the 'paid Subscription version' ... but, that both require additional research beyond the basic program to fill-in the gaps.
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Free vs. paid?
