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.
. *** Notes about contents.
.
. Place of family residence was rarely listed in baptismal records
. before 1895, and few public records exist before 1892. The place
. of birth is often obtained from later marriage records, census
. records, or is determined based on the birthplace of brothers and
. sisters, the names of sponsors, or the birthplace of others
. baptized on the same day.
.
. Birth years are important to fit people into their places in time.
. Dates of death are not considered as important, but are noted when
. available. Birth years are often incorrect; many records recorded
. 'age at last birthday' rather than birth year and the ages in census
. and marriage records tend to be unreliable.
.
. The lines that contain marriage years serve both to identify a
. marriage and to identify the parents of a child. If a marriage year
. is known to be later than the birth year of a child, the child's
. birth year is used instead. If the surname of a child's father is
. not known, the child is included using the mother's surname. A
. missing parental name is replaced by the name '? ?'.
.
. Adopted children are included in cases where the child has grown up
. as a member of the adoptive family. This is at the option of the
. family.
.
. The spellings in the records often vary, especially before 1900.
. Apparently the scribists spelled according to their personal
. interpretations of spoken names, hence we have 'Corcoran/Cochrane',
. 'Lambe/Lamb', 'Marianne/Mary Anne', 'Reddy/Ready', 'Anne/Ann',
. 'Mulrooney/Morooney', 'Kerrivan/Kerivan', 'Theresa/Teresa',
. 'Dennis/Denis', 'Traverse/Travers/Travis', 'Griffiths/Griffis',
. 'Byrne/Burn', 'McHugh/McCue', 'Northover/Notover', 'Rodgers/Rogers',
. 'Counsel/Council', 'Walsh/Welch', 'Greene/Green', 'Louis/Lewis',
. 'Lawrence/Laurence', etc.
.
. When a person is generally known by a middle name, it is listed as
. a single initial followed by the name in single quotes.
.
. Nicknames, such as 'Liz', 'Nellie', 'Min', 'Betsey', 'Norah'
. and 'Bride', were also often used in the records.
.
. First names were often shortened when written, hence 'Mich.', 'Th.',
. 'Jas.', 'Jer.', 'Pat.' and 'Jos.' for men and 'Cath.', 'Eliz.',
. 'Brid.' and 'Marg.' for women (the '.' was usually included).
.
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