Is this record a good source for Clarissa/Clarisy Gott's name?

+2 votes
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The name on this profile has been changed, by a member, from Clarissa to Clarisy. Every document I've found, including her gravestone, say "Clarissa". The member is asserting that it's "Clarisy" on her birth record, and that's the name that counts. I agree. It took me a while, but I have found a record with this spelling. I wondered if it's a credible enough source, or just a misspelling.. I do see their daughter, Lucinda's name is spelled, "Lucindy". 

WikiTree profile: Clarissa Cates
in Genealogy Help by Jodi DiLiberto G2G6 (8.2k points)

1 Answer

+5 votes
 
Best answer
This source also spells Family as Falmaly and up above the word Certificate is spelled Certifict. It appears there are many spelling errors which does bring the accuracy of the spelling for the recording of Clarisy and Lucendy into question as well. In this case if she has consistently gone by Clarissa in all other records throughout her life and this name is clearly not a nickname it would be more faithful to use Clarissa as her profile name and then maybe a note about her birth certificate could be included in the bio or research notes.
by Colleen Griffin G2G6 Mach 1 (18.9k points)
selected by Heike Blumreiter
Thank you very much, Colleen. I seems like an error to me, too, possibly in the transcription. I've been looking for the original, handwritten record, to see what the handwriting looks like. I'll change it back, and include a research note.
The page is numbered '123A' according to the transcription. Without looking at the microfilm, that's hard to interpret. The previous and subsequent pages report events in 1810; if this page is from the same time it's nearly contemporaneous with her birth (even though it's a record of the entire family). But it includes her sister born 8 December 1811, which means it must be later (unless that entry was added later, of course). Perhaps that's why the page number has 'A' added; perhaps it was inserted between two numbered paged? So, I also agree that I wouldn't regard this document as definitive, and I doubt it should be regarded as a birth record.
Thank you, Harry, for this insightful analysis!

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