Thursday, June 5, 2025

When the Index Is Wrong - A Search Tip

The old indexes in the county records volumes are not always accurate, and I'm sure they can be inaccurate in a variety of ways.  This was my experience with one way an index can be wrong.

At FamilySearch I found the index in the county record book with "Robert Nelson et ux" listed, indicating that I could find his deed in Volume Q2 on page 345.  He's the second from bottom line on the image below.  
I found Volume Q2 with deed records at FamilySearch.  Since FamilySearch had not yet digitally indexed this volume, I needed to click a few times to find page 345.  And when I arrived, there was no Robert Nelson on the page.  Assuming I'd made a mistake, I looked through the digital film images again, returning to page 345, with no Robert Nelson.

Was the whole index wrong (or had I made a mistake) or was this just one error?  I decided to see if there was anyone else in the index on or near that page and saw that yes, directly below the line with Robert Nelson was a person on page 355.  When I found page 355, yes, indeed, the person the index stated would be there was there.  So the index was at least partially accurate.  I began to page backward and there, on the next previous page, I found my Robert Nelson et ux.  He was on page 354 instead of 345.  The person who typed the original index for the volume had transposed two digits.
So, if you don't find your ancestor on the page the index lists, check to see if the creator of the index transcribed a few digits.

—Nancy.

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