Consistency

Researcher Michael W. McCormick, in another forum, raised a question about Evidence Explained. The answer was too long to post there. With his permission—and my thanks for raising a helpfully analytical question—I’m using the Q and A here.

15 June 2014 In records created prior to the 20th century, "consistent spellings" of a person's name seem as rare as puppy-dog feathers. When we use published records, whose transcribers or abstractors have misread the names, we seriously compound the problem. So: how do you handle those variants when you compose your narrative? Do you ...