Even the Best Compiled Sources Can Be Wrong. Transcribe the Original.
A wonderful compiled record on Ancestry.com, “Wills of Richmond County, Virgnia, 1699-1800” by Robert K. Headly Jr. has been a resource I have consulted often in my research. This book contains abstracts for all the wills for the county and must have taken many hours to create. But it does contain errors.
The will of Thomas Jesper, written 1 January 1747/8 and recorded 3 Oct 1748 lists Thomas’ children with the married names of two of his daughters; Mary (Jesper) Connor and Ann (Jesper) Hinds. But Mr. Headley’s book lists Ann as “Anne [HENDRON].” The brackets around Anne’s name are an important signal to the reader, as they indicate that the author was possibly unsure of the name he recorded. But, unfortunately, many people have accepted Anne’s married name as Hendron and connected her to “John Hendron.”
Why was Anne’s name listed as “[HENDRON]” by Mr. Headley?
To find out the answer to that question I reviewed the original image of the will.
Although the handwriting isn’t the easiest to read, with a little bit of study it is easy to see why Mr. Headley interpreted the handwriting as Hendron. But in the process of transcribing the document the wording is clarified and understood.
Closeup of a section of the will of Thomas Jesper. View Record
The transcription of the area pictured is:
“I give & bequeath to my Daughter Mary Conno[r] one Pistole Weight on[e] Pound one Shillg & six Pence I give & Bequeath to My Daughter Ann Hind[s] one Pistole Weight one Pound one Shill[g?] & six Pence…”
Source: Richmond County, Virginia, Wills and inventories, Volume 5, 1725-1753, p. 562, Will of Thomas Jesper, created 1 Jan 1747, recorded 3 October 1748; FHL microfilm no. 33,677 Item 2.
Notice that the wording is identical on these two lines except for the name and random capitalization. If we were scanning the document to read the names we would lose the context and confuse the name. It’s easy to see why Mr. Headley read “Hendron” as Ann’s married surname, but when we compare the two lines of the will, it’s impossible to read it as “Hendron.”
But what is a Pistole Weight? The use of the term “one Pistole Weight” is not encountered frequently in genealogical research, but a pistole was a weight of measure used into the late 1800s in the U.S.
Transcribing documents is so important, but sometimes we get tired or think “I’ll just get the important information - the names and relationships” and that’s often how errors like this begin. By misreading Ann’s name in this will she has been connected to a man and children that have no relationship to her at all.
Ann’s husband was Charles Hinds, not John Hendron. Read the full case study that includes more analysis and evidence correlation.
So, the next time you see brackets in an abstract, check the original. Actually, let me change that statement - the next time you see an abstract that you think might be about your ancestor, seek out the original document and do a full transcription. It may seem like I waste of time, but it’s the best way to ensure you do get the important information from the document. Transcribe it and you won’t miss a thing.
Source List:
Robert K. Headley, Compiler, “Wills of Richmond County, Virginia, 1699-1800” (Baltimore, Maryland, United States: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2002), p. 96; Abstract of the will of Thomas Jesper, written 26 Mar 1746/47, recorded 3 Oct 1748.
“Connected with the guinea was the pistole—a coin in considerable circulation at the end of the seventeenth century. Among the requirements of a shopkeeper of that date we find a quinea weight and a pistole weight. Curiously enough, too, the pistole still survives as a term of account among horse-dealers, and in Continental horse-fairs.” Charles Dickens, “ONE-POUND NOTES, GUINEAS ETC.” All the Year Round, VII (1892); (Charles Dickens and Evans Crystal Palace Press, London, England); p. 45. Google Books, https://books.google.com/books?id=79sRAAAAYAAJ.