Month: March 2016

Things I do not understand. I have a William Baskwill born in Ireland about 1844, who was in England by the 1871 census and married to someone named Elizabeth, who was born in Staffordshire.

Okaythen. I’ve found a son of theirs, Arthur Herbert Baskwill (or Herbert Arthur, occasionally), in the 1939 Register and am trying to figure out who his apparent wife, Barbara, was. Can’t find their marriage, which would lead to her last name. Hmf.

But when searching all records at Ancestry, I found a tree with Arthur Herbert in it. And his parents, William Baskwill and Elizabeth Brown. So maybe his mother has a surname, at least. Okay, what sources is this person citing? They claim that William and Elizabeth were married in 1868 in Castlebar. Um, no, that is really unlikely if she was born in England.

Ireland Civil Registration Marriages Index, 1845-1958

So I look closely at the source this person is citing. It’s from the Irish Civil Registration Index. The only information you will get there are names and the date the marriage was registered. It will not tell you who those people are attached to, or even which people on the list married each other. Sometimes this is still a helpful resource, but you have to use it carefully. I see no one with the last name of Brown, nor do I see any Elizabeths. Why on God’s green earth did this person think this was a marriage for William and Elizabeth in London, England?

I spent an hour on that nonsense, chasing it around and around. I even pulled up the parish marriage register for 1867-1868 for Castlebar, just for the sake of thoroughness. Nope. Nothing there, either.

This was not a total waste of time, actually. Who did the William on that list marry? The easiest way to narrow it down is to look at the next census, to see who he’s living with. That won’t work here, though, because there isn’t an extant Irish census until 1901. Too much time has passed between the events for the census to be helpful. For now he’ll go in the “To Think About Later” pile. (And it’s possible that, if I go look in my paper files, I have more information on him that I just haven’t entered into the database. I’m too lazy to do that right this minute, though.)

“[July 1st 1860]
Shraugheen
John of John Baskquill & Biddy Kelly
S.S. Wm. Baskquil & Mary Kelly”

Microfilm 04210 / 05 | Page 32
Aughagower; County of Mayo; Archdiocese of Tuam. Baptisms, May 1860 to Sep. 1860

Index page from Findmypast for the above image

As I’ve searched through the Catholic Parish register indexes at Findmypast, I’ve been submitting corrections. I do the same thing at Ancestry. Ancestry can take months to update their indexes, if they do at all. I had no idea what time-frame to expect from Findmypast, but I was shocked to see that corrections I filed just a few days ago have already gone live. You can see them in the above screenshot.

The last name in the index was spelled Bashguill. Somebody consistently had trouble with the “q” in the name, transcribing it as a “g.” Mistaking the “k” for an “h” was maybe a little more forgivable? I have the advantage of having worked with this name for years, so I’ve seen it all. Some day I’ll compile a list of all the different spellings I’ve seen.[1]

As well, John’s mother’s name was transcribed as Bridgt Kely. It’s clearly Biddy Kelly. It may not make a big difference in the long run, as Bridgt and Biddy are an abbreviation and variant of Bridget. At Findmypast, they do a good job of cross-referencing, if you check the name variants box. People would probably find the mis-transcribed record, if they search carefully, but better to make it right, right?

I am also adding townlands, where they’re recorded in the original record. I figure I may as well, since I’ve got the edit screen open and the image right in front of me. John was born in Shraugheen, which is an old variant spelling of Sraheen. The townlands are indispensable in determining who’s who. (Do you have any idea how many John Basquills there are?!)

You can see the fields I edited, because they’re in all caps. Kind of fabulous, I think. And unlike corrections filed at Ancestry, where I sometimes feel like they disappear into the void, this was timely positive reinforcement from Findmypast.

____________________________________
1. I laugh when people in my genealogy groups talk about how they diligently add every spelling variant they encounter as an AKA. I’d have 30 AKAs for each person, if I did that, and my name index would be ridiculous. I record the name variants in the source citation, where I transcribe the record fully. That is going to have to be good enough.

It must be nice to only have one or two common name variants.