Mother's maiden name.

[Olde Crone]

I'm checking a tree branch which was compiled by someone from family memory. There are no dates but it's roughly correct so far.

The progenitor married an Irish woman. They had 8 children, each of whom was baptised, registered at the local registry office and then listed in the GRO indexes. Thus, 24 opportunities to spell the mother's maiden name. So far I have 13 wildly different spellings, only one of which is a recognisable surname.

To add insult to injury, one of these children also marries an Irish woman. They had 12 children, her maiden name has so far been spelled eleven different ways. I realised what it REALLY was, by walking around muttering in a cod Irish accent and it is nothing like any of the renderings.

I realise I'm not looking at any originals but really, why would any volunteer transcriber (church records) not query a gibberish name?

I've seen lots of misspellings over the years but this is by far the most concentrated rubbish I've ever seen.

OC

[Glen TK]

I just looked gibberish up in the dictionary and it simply said 'term associated with genealogy'

[kiterunner]

If you're transcribing from, say, microfiche at the library or archives, there is probably nobody to consult about names which are difficult to read.

[Olde Crone]

Ooh GLEN! You big fibber!

Kate, I take your point. It would drive me mad not to have anyone to ask, though.

OC

[JBee]

I have so much trouble transcribing writing that I don't volunteer and am very impressed with those that do even if some of the translations are off the mark.

[Mary from Italy]

To be fair, the handwriting in most of the Irish records I've looked at was absolutely abysmal. And the priest often abbreviated the names, which makes things worse.

[Olde Crone]

Yes, I completely understand about awful writing, but in the early 2000s, I did some voluntary transcribing for the LDS. Two distanced people transcribed the same register. If the transcriptions did not agree, they went to an experienced arbitrator who had the final word.. We were told to put * for letters we could not read.

In the case I am moaning about, the Priest had an obviously foreign name and I assume he was not familiar with Irish names much less Irish accents. But what about the Registrar? Almost certainly local, working in an area with a high Irish population, yet wrote down some rubbish that wasn't even a phonetic attempt at a name.

I suppose the thinking - if thinking ever came into it - was that no member of the public would ever see the records and anyway, what did a mother's maiden name matter?

OC

[Phoenix]

I don't think the first RC priest in Croydon could speak English. In rural Norfolk the registration district would cover such a wide area that the registrar would swallow any lies you told him.
Of course he might also be deaf.