Clean Copy

madhattergenealogy@gmail.com

29 May 2018

One of my cousins asked me to look at a will for her because she was having a hard time reading some of the names. Whenever I am presented with a document that I did not personally obtain I try to get a "clean copy" which means going back to where the original document came from and pulling my own copy. Sometimes a document has been photocopied so many times that it is junk to try and read. I also like to get a clean copy so I can format a proper source citation and to make sure that the document I am looking at is what I think it is.

My cousin sent me a link to someone's Ancestry.com page. That person had uploaded a copy of Anderson Chick's will from Walton County, Georgia. This was not a document they had linked to on the Ancestry.com website so not a digital image from microfilm. I didn't link to it for you to see since it is attached to someone's tree page which includes their name. I checked FamilySearch to see if they had a digital image of Anderson's will taken from microfilm. They did. You can see Anderson Chick's entire loose probate file HERE which includes his will. The names recorded in the will are clear. A bonus is that my cousin can now see the entire probate file and not just the will. If a digital image taken from microfilm had not been available online, I would have instructed my cousin to contact the Walton County Courthouse to obtain a photocopy or digital image from them.

Beginning of Anderson Chick's Will

Another example, I was asked to transcribe a will from Abbeville County, South Carolina. The document was unreadable so I called the courthouse to get a clean copy. When I received it I found that not only was it very readable but there was a second page. That second page contained some very valuable information. I now had the date the will was proved which gave me a date range for when this man died. The will was proved over five years after he wrote the will. One of the witnesses was different between who witnessed the will versus who was there to prove the will. It turns out that one of the witnesses had died. The new witness was the original man's sons-in-law. I didn't know that right off but after a little digging I was able to figure it out. These little bits of information make for a clearer picture. This wasn't my family but I wanted to be able to give the person I was doing this for as much information that I could.

It is common to find miscellaneous documents in someone's personal papers. If your great uncle Norman hands you his marriage certificate you will have to cite the certificate as an artifact unless you obtain a clean copy from the agency that created it. This is another reason why it is a good idea to go back to the original creator, if possible.

You can expand this concept to the digital copies available online. A digital image of a document can easily be available on multiple websites. Each website has their own way of "cleaning up" the images so they can look very different from website to website. If you are looking at a document that is hard to read you can try finding it on another website before you try and contact the originating agency.

If you are presented with bad copy of a document don't immediately throw your hands up in despair. Try and get a clean copy and many times you will be rewarded.

Michele Simmons Lewis, CG® is part of the Legacy Family Tree team at MyHeritage. She handles the enhancement suggestions that come in from our users as well as writing for Legacy News. You can usually find her hanging out on the Legacy User Group Facebook page answering questions and posting tips.

Comments (6)

Original Documents, usually registers, are not necessarily available for independent research and imaging. Consequently, one must use what one can get.
Many times the image taken of an original document is not of photographic quality or 16 shades of grey, but a 2-bit rendition – a black & white scan. This was intended historically to use least storage space, improve communication transfer times. These days we desire much more integrity of copies, facsimiles or images of our original documents. A black & white image is often of such poor resolution as to make it virtually worthless. Handwriting suffers worst by the minimal technology.

I too have found more information in additional documents by going to the original copies. There can also be duplicate copies of a will. One ancestor had three copies of their will, a copy with probate, a copy in the deed book and a copy in the county Will book. Each one was submitted on different dates and had a little additional information associated with the copy.

A very good reminder to go back through some of my more-important, old documentation I’d downloaded from others or had printed as hard-copies, and see if they are now online or are again but in a more complete version from a better source.
In some cases, indexes have been replaced or enhanced by full abstracts or Images, and scanning and other technology have improved so much over the years, that I have found better, more readable copies now that were not available years ago.

Were these certificates found in someone’s personal possession? Or, did you write off to the agency that is responsible for creating these documents to get them? These are cited differently from each other. In the first example you would cite it as an artifact. In the second example you would cite them as marriage certificates obtained from the agency that created them. If your copies are artifacts, you may or may not want to get copies of these documents from the originating agency. That is totally up to you. I personally prefer to get the documents, if I can, from the originating agency. In the case of marriage records, it is very common for people to be given a fancy certificate which is different then the information entered into the marriage register/book itself.

I have both my parents and my grandparents marriage certificates, I also have my husbands parents and grandparents marriage certificates. How does one go about citing the sources for these? The marriages were from 1918 to 1947, so are considered very sentimental value to us as well as our family.
I am confused, to what you are saying is it that I have to go back to cite the church that they were married in that gave the record, or is it the Ont. Govt. of Canada ?
Thanks
Heather

I appreciated your insight on finding an original source for documents. This was also a great refresher for the Paleography course I took. I really liked the copy of the will you included in the article. I could read it easily and see why you reiterated to go back to the original source. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

BP
Barry PYCFROFT

6 years ago

Original Documents, usually registers, are not necessarily available for independent research and imaging. Consequently, one must use what one can get.
Many times the image taken of an original document is not of photographic quality or 16 shades of grey, but a 2-bit rendition – a black & white scan. This was intended historically to use least storage space, improve communication transfer times. These days we desire much more integrity of copies, facsimiles or images of our original documents. A black & white image is often of such poor resolution as to make it virtually worthless. Handwriting suffers worst by the minimal technology.
MT
Marilyn Thomsen

6 years ago

I too have found more information in additional documents by going to the original copies. There can also be duplicate copies of a will. One ancestor had three copies of their will, a copy with probate, a copy in the deed book and a copy in the county Will book. Each one was submitted on different dates and had a little additional information associated with the copy.
CR
Carolyn Rutherford

6 years ago

A very good reminder to go back through some of my more-important, old documentation I’d downloaded from others or had printed as hard-copies, and see if they are now online or are again but in a more complete version from a better source.
In some cases, indexes have been replaced or enhanced by full abstracts or Images, and scanning and other technology have improved so much over the years, that I have found better, more readable copies now that were not available years ago.
M
Michele

6 years ago

Were these certificates found in someone’s personal possession? Or, did you write off to the agency that is responsible for creating these documents to get them? These are cited differently from each other. In the first example you would cite it as an artifact. In the second example you would cite them as marriage certificates obtained from the agency that created them. If your copies are artifacts, you may or may not want to get copies of these documents from the originating agency. That is totally up to you. I personally prefer to get the documents, if I can, from the originating agency. In the case of marriage records, it is very common for people to be given a fancy certificate which is different then the information entered into the marriage register/book itself.
H
Heather

6 years ago

I have both my parents and my grandparents marriage certificates, I also have my husbands parents and grandparents marriage certificates. How does one go about citing the sources for these? The marriages were from 1918 to 1947, so are considered very sentimental value to us as well as our family.
I am confused, to what you are saying is it that I have to go back to cite the church that they were married in that gave the record, or is it the Ont. Govt. of Canada ?
Thanks
Heather
V
Valerie

6 years ago

I appreciated your insight on finding an original source for documents. This was also a great refresher for the Paleography course I took. I really liked the copy of the will you included in the article. I could read it easily and see why you reiterated to go back to the original source. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.