The following is a copy of a letter published in the Warwickshire newsletter
by one of it's subscribers. I have found much information at this site but I
think Geoff's letter is informative and wisely helpful.
I quote:
I spent a few hours last night satisfying my curiosity
about the IGI records.
I have many photocopies of pages from the Chilvers Coton
parish registers that I made when I was in Nuneaton, and I decided to
see whether the LDS transcribers had managed to do a better job on the
dark and ink-smudged parts than I. The result was surprising. These were
mostly pages from 1650 to 1700, and I used the online IGI.
Where a name was dark and smudged but still understandable,
there was often no entry on the IGI. Where the handwriting was doubtful,
but understandable because the same names appeared clearer in other
parts, there was no entry OR a completely wrong name had been recorded.
Then, I noticed that only about half of the names had been transcribed -
mostly those which were so clear that there could be no doubt. The
majority of the correct records were the ones which had a C or M batch
number - which I believe were mostly transcribed from the Bishop's
Transcripts. Those without the C or M prefix were only vaguely reliable.
My conclusion is that whoever did the transcribing of those
particular records was rather slipshod and in a hurry and had no really
clear idea of old handwriting. I found 'c' recorded as 'r' and
'B'; '7'
as '1' or '9'; 'e' as 'o', and so on. I also believe that
the
transcribers were in Salt Lake and worked from photographs of registers.
They would usually have no local knowledge and were perhaps not even
familiar enough with English names to question their own interpretation.
One interesting entry, which was faded but still legible with
a knowledge of the district and the names that occurred frequently was
the marriage between William Coxe and Dorothy Brighton on September 16th
1654 at ARBURY, the estate of the Newdigate family in the parish of
Chilvers Coton.. There were two entries on the IGI for this marriage:
William Coxe to GARTRYE (no attempt to decipher the surname) in FEBRUARY
1654 in Nuneaton. The faint but legible September has been ignored and
Arbury is interpreted as February.
The other IGI entry is for William Coxe and Dorothie BEETON, 18th
September 1654 (wrong date) in Nuneaton (a different place at that time,
which would even cause a researcher to waste a lot of time searching
Nuneaton records). These are both entries with the 'M' prefix for the
batch number.
This was, I would point out again, Chilvers Coton. I have no idea
about other districts. Perhaps they are better.
I have the feeling that my Richard and Hannah White may still be
lurking in Chilvers Coton but are hiding in the dark pages.
The moral is that which genealogists have said for a long
time: use the IGI as a guide only, but then check the originals, perhaps
through a local FHS which has often transcribed them.
Geoff in Helsinki