Yesterday I came across an old reference to a blog my sister started back in 2013 devoted to her genealogical interests, which she called Family Hunter. Turns out she only wrote four entries over an 18 month period, the last in February 2015.

I found it interesting not only because of several details she records from our ancestral past, but also because she was learning many of the same lessons that I had as an investigative reporter. The contexts were very different, but the lessons the same.

In one post, she discussed the problem of relying on genealogical indexes prepared by others. Her point was that there are enough errors found in such summaries that it’s necessary to go back to the original records to be sure of their meaning.

She wrote:

I can laugh at the census indexers who don’t read those small print instructions at the bottom of many census pages, the small print that defines the abbreviations used in the reporting. In Hawaii we separate out the Portuguese and the Puerto Ricans (both Caucasian) because they were specifically brought to Hawaii to work in the sugar and pineapple fields. All the other Caucasian groups we lump into a category aptly titled Other Caucasian, or OC. Most indexers see OC, assume Octaroon (1/8 black) and index the individual as BLACK. A whole lot of those white folk would be appalled to find themselves — or their direct line ancestors — described as Black. The issue is very consistent from 1900 (the first US Census to include Hawaii) through 1940.

When Hawaii became a US territory, all her citizens became US citizens. So I was appalled to discover an entry in the 1910 US census showing a part-Hawaiian family living in the San Francisco Bay Area classified as ALIEN because they were born in Hawaii.

Recently I read through a list of Hawaiian burials from the 1880’s. They were all in a rural cemetery and had a column which consistently showed “no body”. What happened to the body? Then a cousin pointed out that the column was asking who was the responsible person in charge at the burial — the undertaker, the minister or priest, for example. Small, rural cemetery. No need to call in someone else to take charge. The family could do this. Who was in charge? No body. Nobody.

The lessons for genealogists are clear. Don’t settle for the index. Read the original document, especially if it is only the click of a button away. Read the small print. Understand the abbreviations used. Know your history and know your geography. The same county name may appear is several states. Is it Washington Co., NY or PA? Rutherford Co. NC or TN? Lincoln Co. KY or TN? Nevada Co. California — or Missouri? The Azores are not islands in Scotland, as some indexers have asserted. And in Hawaii, nearly every island has a district called Kona.

That’s very good advice for genealogists and for reporters.

And it makes me sad that Bonnie didn’t write more in this blog before she died in October 2016.