Sometimes Even the Newspapers Get It Wrong

   In researching the information for my Tate grand parents, I was steered to a cousin who had an obituary for my grandfather. I asked him if he could send it to me, but it was a copy from the original and hadn't been scanned into a computer file. So, he agreed to read it to me over the phone instead. At my request, he went through the obituary two times and I made note of names, dates and places. Some of the names were known to me and some were completely new.

   As an aside, I work as a computer programmer and I tend to live by the moto, “If I ask you the same question three different ways, do I get the same answer back all three times?” This saves an enormous amount of time on the front-end by getting people to think about their answers and the possible exceptions. This process most definitely does not endear me to my co-workers. lol

   So, I entered the information for my relatives that my cousin read to me into Ancestry, then called up one of my aunts. In an effort to validate what I had, I started asking her what she remembered about my grandfather’s death and those relatives that made it into the obituary. Right out of the gate, my paternal great grandmother’s information, specifically her maiden name, was wrong in the obituary. Somehow, the person taking the information over the phone, way back when, heard Harper for great grandma's maiden name when the family member giving the information said Parker.

   That's a pretty big error to have to figure out if you're just starting out with your family research. Needless to say, even if the information is in print from a reputable source, verify its accuracy whenever possible.

Here is the obituary reproduced, in part, from the newspaper:

Source:
"Greenville News, May 29, 1961 p11

V.L. Tate

Vollie Lee Tate, 47, of 3 Bryson St. died at a local hospital at 2 a.m. yesterday, after a long period of declining health and five weeks of serious illness.

A native of Greenville County, Mr. Tate was born Oct. 16, 1913 and had spent his entire life here. His parents were Henry L. and Lydia Harper Tate of Greer.

Mr. Tate was employed at Dunean Mill in the spinning department. He was a Baptist."


Here's a screenshot of the results so far ...