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EnricoV and Cyanna both have very good advice and suggestions. Bottom line; Cross check everything and accept nothing at face value unless you know personally it is correct. We all can tell stories about problems with names and I'll pass on a couple. The last name of my paternal grandmother and her dad were "Cox" but her dad's brother was "Cocke" as well as all the other ancestors. After many brick walls I found out that when her dad joined the Union Army during the Civil War the enlisting officer spelled his name phonetically "Cox" and it stuck. My step-dad was "Sam [Blank]" but family called him "Sammy". When he registered for the WWII draft they said he had to have a middle initial/name, which he didn't. So he was registered as "Sam E. [Blank]" and that was his legal name from that point on.
So, repeating what has already been said; Don't get hung up on a particular name, keep checking, and enjoy this great hobby. It's a wonderful ride
Plus, some census takers would mistakenly list a female child as a male and vice versa. I've dealt with that issue a few times and it really sent me into a tizzy, LOL! Then there are birth records which can cause a few years of fruitless searching until you start requesting a search for children recorded as born but not yet named, as was the case with my paternal grandfather. I even have a copy of the original "birth record postcard" which was sent in by my great-grandparents to officially record the birth of their new, unnamed son.
I have a second great grandmother that I chased through the census records for a long time. She was called Nettie and I had been told her maiden name was either Glass or Glazier. The Glass came from the transcription of her marriage record. The Glazier was ostensibly a transcription of her grave stone. I could find no one her age with either surname in the census from the area that I knew she must have lived in.
I knew her initials were L. A.; she signed her will that way and the marriage record just used the initials. I noticed that her husband's brother had married a Susan Glaze. Then I could follow the census record for Susan Glaze's family and discover that in one census she had a sister named "Favina" Glaze who in the next census became "Antonett" Glaze --- the right age to be the lady I was looking for. Antoinette became a common name in our neck of the woods in the early nineteenth century and was passed on to subsequent generations, commonly shortened to Nettie.
On reinspection of the marriage record, it was easy to see how the transcription error was made. The "Favina" was also a transcription error --- though I admit ancestry did keep showing it to me in searches. It just seemed too far off. The original record does say Lavina.
The hooker was a visit to the grave --- which was a family plot --- with only two burials. First I had to find it, with only a general idea of where it was. Luckily, it is near a small town where everyone knows everyone else. A local lawyer suggested a person who might know where it was. Yeah, he did. It was literally in his back yard and he took me right to it. It had not been maintained, under a cedar tree, covered in briars. The gentleman loaned me some limb loppers, I hacked my way in, scraped the needles off the horizontal stone, and found "Antoinett L. Glaze", wife of ....
Apparently, when she was about 16, Nettie decided she did not like her first name, switched to her middle name, later went by Nettie, and by the time she died had flipped her first and middle names. But she started out as Lavina Antoinette Glaze.
I was so happy it did not just say Nettie and her married name! I am sure the fellow who took me to the plot got a kick out of my excitement.
So, you see, I found her, despite every single record --- census, marriage, and the alleged transcription of the information on the grave stone --- having a transcription error in one or both names. If brothers had not married sisters, I'd still be looking.
So do follow up on those wacky spellings. They may lead you to your goal eventually.
One of my favorite misspellings, though it wasn't a name, was a birthplace given on a passenger list. It was given as Bahaba. It puzzled me for a long time, until I realized the family was from Maine. It was Bar Harbor.
One of my favorite misspellings, though it wasn't a name, was a birthplace given on a passenger list. It was given as Bahaba. It puzzled me for a long time, until I realized the family was from Maine. It was Bar Harbor.
ROFLMAO!!!! Good example of the census taker not understanding the accent, LOL!
Plus, some census takers would mistakenly list a female child as a male and vice versa. I've dealt with that issue a few times and it really sent me into a tizzy, LOL! Then there are birth records which can cause a few years of fruitless searching until you start requesting a search for children recorded as born but not yet named, as was the case with my paternal grandfather. I even have a copy of the original "birth record postcard" which was sent in by my great-grandparents to officially record the birth of their new, unnamed son.
Some of those births records the first name is given as "Infant of John" or whatever, using the father's first name.
I thank you all for all of this information. Now I know not to dismiss something but to give everything a second thought! I am sure I will be back nagging everyone along the way on my journey. I had to laugh at the Bahaba comment. My family is all from the south so I would imagine the southern accent most certainly could have played into the translations.
For starters, the censuses online are the 3rd copy made. The first was by the census taker -- who often didn't ask for spelling. It was the County copy. The County copied for the State ( chance #2 for errors), The State copied for the Federal... this is what is online (chance #3 for errors)
As to mistakes? How about my husband's grandparents? His g-grandmother came here pregnant and widowed, her husband having just died after she became pregnant. She came to live w/her mother and sister here. His grandfather was born here in the mid1880s and there is no record -- there should be, it was probably just never filed; I should go check church archives, but we aren't sure of the religion. [We found them in the state census with her sister.] By the next Federal census, g-grandmother is living 3 states away and remarried with 5 children. She is listed with her nickname [which family used and my husband often visited these family members as a child] The census taker simply assigned my husband's grandfather the stepfather's name (obviously wrong, as the date of marriage and age of the grandfather do not jive for him to be the stepfather's son). We cannot find grandfather in the next census; though my husband's grandmother is there and listed as married ( they were married 2 weeks prior to the census; we have the license); at marriage and in future censuses, grandfather has taken back his legal name -- not the stepfather's. If we didn't know the names, the places, the relations... who'd ever have found them?
Talk to every relative. Ask associated names. Find correct ages for people and siblings. Ask about half-siblings and cousins. People move, live with relatives.... lots of reasons for why you cannot find them. Also -- one of the WORST problems: you search a name and find someone and it is half the family on one page and "ooops" -- the next page with the rest is gone.
Cite everything you find. Then find another record to confirm it.
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But she started out as Lavina Antoinette Glaze. 
