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Archiver > APG > 2005-12 > 1133549146


From: "Richard Pence" <>
Subject: Re: [APG] Re: transcribing names
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2005 13:45:46 -0500
References: <MAEHLLOJMNHDFFACMJIPGEOKCHAA.kaitken@rpl.regina.sk.ca>


Ken Aitken <> wrote:

> I stick to my guns-- transcribe the name as found.

Aye, here's the rub.

Reasonable people (and some not so reasonable) can difer as to what is
found. And if an e looks like an i should you transcribe it as an i - even
though you know from other iterations in the same document that it is an e?

In the 1930 census my Pence grandfather and my father are indexed as Peever
and any "reasonable" person can easily see that what is written by me
enumerator (my father's friend and near-neighbor) was Pence.

And I just spent a week sortinig out the Pences indexed as Pinces in 1920.
To the knowing eye the name Pence pops out; to the inexperienced one a
poorly written e looks like an i (even if not dotted!).

The more experienced the researcher and the more familiar with the time and
place, the more accurate the index, of course.

But there are different approaches to indexing.

I do a one-name study on PENCE. At least three different groups of Pences
came down from Pennsylvania to settle in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, many
of them in Shenandoah County. The original German spelling of this name is
Bentz, sometimes rendered as Pentz (the two sound the same when spoken in
German) and the deed records of Shenandoah County contain many deeds with
both of these spellings. However, if you go to the grantor or grantee
indexes of the county you won't find either name. They are all indexed under
the present-day spelling of the name!

This is no doubt not the proper way to do it, but it does make it a bit
easier for the researcher.

Yours for more creatively on noncopyrightable alphbetizing,
Richard


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