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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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