Read Documents Carefully to be Sure You Understand What is Being Asked

Brenda recently wrote to AskOliveTree with this question:

My grandmother [Daisy McKean] was born in  Preston, Ontario [in 1912].  Her Ontario birth place is listed at a Hospital on Jacob Street.  Would you know the name of that hospital so I can update my records

This is a very good example of a slight misinterpretation of a document. I checked  Ancestry.com for Daisy's birth registration so that I could verify Brenda's statement "her birth place is listed AT A HOSPITAL ON JACOB STREET" (upper case mine for emphasis)

See if you can spot Brenda's misinterpretation of little Daisy's birth record below. It was an easy mistake to make.  It's  to read documents carefully. Read the instructions to the clerk/minister/whoever filling out the document. Read the small print on the document.

Daisy's birth registration shows the instructions to the left of the field where "Jacob Street" is written in.

In the spot where the place of the child's birth is to be recorded, we see "If in a hospital give its name" The clerk has entered "Jacob St." which would almost certainly indicate that Daisy's birth was not in a hospital but was instead a home birth.

It was most likely her parents' home on Jacob St. but we do not know that with certainty. Her grandmother was the informant and  genealogists must keep an open mind as to whose house the child was born in. Perhaps Grandma lived on Jacob St. and Daisy's mother went there to have her child.

I suggest looking at 1911 census and 1921 to see if the family was living on Jacob St. I would also check Voter's lists to see if the parents can be found there.

Figuring out a Dutch Word in Church Records

Liz asked about a word in a Dutch church record

I recently found your site while researching some Dutch ancestry for a friend and wondered if you knew what the abbreviations "Get."meant in a birth record

"Elisabeth, d. van Samuel NUTMAN en syn huisvrow (!). Get. Jan Knokkaerd, &ce."

Dear Liz

You can start with a list of translations of words in Dutch church records  at the New Netherland section of Olive Tree Genealogy. Translations of Dutch phrases in Church Records will take you directly there.

However I believe I overlooked the specific abbreviation you asked about. Here is a tip for anyone who can't find a foreign language word in any lists or dictionaries.  Study the record at its source. It always helps to see a record in context and see other records in that record set.  When I say "at its source" I don't necessarily mean you need to see the original record (although that is always best). I mean take a look at the microfilm or online site where you found the record. Look at all the records in that database. Analyze what you see.

Since you didn't tell me where you found this record I searched and  found it online at http://www.at16home.demon.nl/COLCHESTER.htm. Studying the other baptisms and births that were recorded with the record you are interested in, and looking at the context of the word, it becomes clear that get. is the abbreviation of the word getuige which means witness, thus the sponsor of the child.

So your record above is simply recording the baptism/christening of Elizabeth, the daughter of Samuel Nutman and his wife (her given name is not recorded). Sponsors are Jan Knokkaerd, etc.