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(18 posts)

I don't need to tell anyone with an interest in genealogy about the horrors of transcription errors. They are particularly rife when someone without a knowledge of local names is transcribing some hand-written documents.

While I was adding more people to the Places of Birth map I came across Elizabeth Melhuish apparently born in Lavister, Cornwall. Google maps didn't know Lavister and neither did any gazetteers I could find. I wondered about Lanivet but it seemed unlikely. There was an Elizabeth on the GRO in the right year registered in Launceston, but there were plenty of Elizabeth Melhuishs floating around in the 19th century. Elizabeth's father born and died in Poughill, Devon and was the rector there so it seemed unlikely that he had upped sticks and moved to Cornwall. Nevertheless I tried looking for her parents in the censuses. There they were in 1861, both parents and Elizabeth, giving her place of birth as "Launston, Cornwall". Scrutinising the handwriting, it was apparent that it could be read as "Lavister".

So I couldn't have been more wrong when I assumed that Elizabeth's father would not have moved from Poughill. He was variously the curate of St Mary Magdalene, Launceston, Morleigh and Huxham before becoming rector of Poughill. He also took time out to travel all the way to Wandsworth in London and find his second wife there.

Genealogy is not an exact science!