Why original documents are best

My great-great-grandfather was Henry Burgess GIBB. He was born in Paddington (an inner-city suburb of Sydney) in 1864, and died near Teralba, near Lake Macquarie, New South Wales in November 1901. He died in his tent as he worked as part of the unemployed relief works at the railway. The coroner suggested that his fatal wound was self-inflicted, which is sad to read, especially about a relative. Henry had a letter from his father, John GIBB, on him when he died, so thankfully he was able to be identified. There are a few newspaper articles outlining the gory details if that's your thing...The Teralba Suicide, Brevities, and Supposed Suicide.

Henry is fascinating to me. He fathered my great-grandfather, Andrew Gibb BARRETT (aka George Andrew BARRETT, and later George Andrew (Andy) COLLINS) who was born in the Sydney Benevolent Asylum in 1885. I've written about Andy here. The baby's mother was Ada BARRETT (nee MORRANT). Her husband, William Joshua BARRETT, was in Goulburn Gaol for the attempted murder of their infant son, William James BARRETT. During his incarceration, Ada has had a relationship (of sorts) with Henry. Did Henry know about baby George/Andrew? Henry didn't marry or have any other children that I could find records for. Did Henry's family know about this baby that was fostered into the COLLINS family at Wallsend, New South Wales? Thankfully, a paper trail left by the Sydney Benevolent Asylum named Henry as the father, and Ancestry DNA has since proven this to be true.

Ancestry has the Registers of Coroners' Inquests and Magisterial Inquiries, 1834-1942 in its database, and this dataset popped up as a hint about the death of my Henry. 

The transcription has the place of death as the Railway Cinedeiration; Near Teralba. Without looking at the original I presumed that Cinedeiration was a specific but obscure railway term that I might one day find out the meaning of. One night I was Googling for the meaning and found nothing. I was about to look for a railway enthusiasts group to enquire with when I thought I should have a look at the original in case they wanted to see a copy of it. 

What was obvious when I saw the original was that the place of death was actually the Railway line deviations, which makes a lot more sense! No need to hunt down a railway group, and look silly in the process. This is why it's important to view the original record rather than rely on a transcription.

I've since edited Ancestry's transcription, to make the record more easily readable for future researchers.