Spokane

Check data carefully to avoid errors
Heritage Hunting: Beverly Smith Vorpahl says death certificates can be incorrect, even if provided by closest kin.

Beverly Smith Vorpahl
The Spokesman-Review

We were discussing "given names" a while back, with a mention of my aunt, who would have happily given her name back if only she could. I even speculated that maybe she didn't know she had been named for her paternal grandmother, Julia Elvina Hadlock Wing.

Turns out I was probably right.

In the mail last week came a copy of my grandfather's 1952 death certificate with many, many errors given by the "informant," his daughter, my Aunt Vina.

The certificate could have sent me on terrible goose chases with my research if I didn't already have verified sources about Corliss Smith Wing and his family. One might think that information reported by a daughter would be reliable. But one of genealogy's first rules is not to presume anything about anything.

I've talked to elderly cousins about their parents and grandparents, hoping to land new information. Unfortunately I knew more about their ancestors than they did. And, what's worse, they thought it was strange that I was so interested. Sigh.

Grandpa's death certificate shows that Aunt Vina didn't know where her father was born. She gave "Unknown," for his birth town and Ontario as the province. Years ago I learned he was born in Sutton, Brome, Quebec.

Sadly, she didn't know her mother's maiden name. And, what is even more curious are the given names listed of "Hattie Rannie." Hattie Louella Royce are her given and maiden names.

Aunt Vina correctly identified Grandpa's father as David Wing, but this man is heroic in the eyes of his descendants, so it's not surprising she got that right. However, there were only question marks for the name of David's wife Julia Elvina, the woman whose name she was given.

This column is not meant to denigrate my aunt, who, bless her heart, died two weeks after her father, but simply to point out why we have to be alert and wary of any information we come across.

As hard as it is to admit, I listed the wrong cemetery where my mother was to be buried. How many of her descendants are going to shake their heads at how uninformed Genevieve's own daughter was.

Like they say, vital records are only as accurate as the person who provides the information.

•This just in: "Genealogists come to the rescue of the FBI"

The FBI, according to an article in the Salt Lake Tribune, is consulting with computer experts of the Mormon Church to learn how to manage huge databases like the Mormon folk do with their millions upon millions of names in their databases.

Specifically they're providing advice for developing name-recognition programs to assist FBI authorities in finding and tracking suspects.

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