Transcribed information indicates a child is male but with a female name

Question

Elsbeth is typically a woman's name but Ancestry says the child is male. Their is no image of the original in Ancestry. I am not sure what to use for the sex (I used male since the record said that but it came up on the error report and someone else changed it to daughter)

Source Information

Ancestry.com. Switzerland, Select Baptisms, 1491-1940 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.

Original data: Switzerland, Baptisms, 1491-1940. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013. 

Name:	Elsbeth Buser
Gender:	Male
Baptism Date:	28 mai 1741 (28 May 1741)
Baptism Place:	Protestantisch, Bubendorf, Basel, Switzerland
Father:	Heinrich Buser
Mother:	Anna Rudi
FHL Film Number:	128156

Comments

https://www.stamboomnederland.nl/etalage/Frank_Haans_Haans_93554/persons42.html

 

 2135

Partner	Barbara Regenass
Partner	Hans Jakob Buser
Partner	Barbara Börlin
Kind	Hans Jacob Buser
Kind	Barbara Buser
Kind	Friedrich Buser
Kind	Elsbeth Buser
Kind	Anna Maria Buser
Kind	Anna Buser
Kind	Heinrich Buser
Getrouwd	1743 Bennwil (Zwitserland)

Answer 1

If you believe him to have been a male, set the profile to male and be sure to leave a note explaining. Perhaps you may want to mark the error as a false error when it reappears on next week's report.

Answer 2

While I try to use sources with at least a tiny grain of salt, if this is the only source and it says "Male" - then it's a "Male" in my book. I'd set it to Male again and add a note in the bio that the name might appear female, but sources indicate he is a male. I'd then go to the error report and mark the error as false, which will take it off the report.

Answer 3

Hi there   -  I have done a quick search on Elsbeth Buser and I believe that is probably a transcription error.  Elsbeth seems to be a common name in the Buser and related families.  Check on Elsbeth Wagner-2467 and Elsbeth Buser-65 and Elsbeth Buser-57.  They are all closely related to this Elsbeth and they are all females.  Good luck and have fun!!

Answer 4

There is a tree (one tree in many versions, ant tied to a private website, so no use linking) at MyHeritage where we get:

Elsbeth / Elisabeth Buser born 28 May 1741, Ziefen, Basel, Switzerland to Heinrich Buser and Anna Buser (geboren Rudin)

married to Jakob Furler 29 July 1766, Ziefen, Basel, Switzerland

mother to three daughters, Barbara 1767, Anna 1770 and Salome 1774

dead 21 May 1806, Ziefen, Basel, Switzerland

One doesn't get at the sources - but I wonder if the daughters may be found by FamilySearch. Elsbeth's baptism is on FamilySearch (as male, no image - I believe the transcription error theory)

Comments

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FVF3-C9K
Barbara Furler born 10 September 1767 to Jacob Furler and Elsbeth Busser, Bubendorf, Basel, Switzerland

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FVF3-ZG4
Anna Furler, born 21 October 1770 to Jacob Furler and Elssbeth Buser, Bubendorf, Basel, Switzerland

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FVF3-496
Salome Furler born 24 July 1774 to Jacob Furler and Elssbeth Buser, Bubendorf, Basel, Switzerland

But there were a small handful of Elsbeth Busers around at this time

---

Well, Elsbeth's own record (the one that has her as male) also says Bubendorf, Basel, Switzerland rather than Ziefen as the MH-tree

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FVXB-SPT

This is the Elsbeth born 28 May 1741 to Heinrich Buser and Anna Rudi.

---

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FVNC-GP6

Elisabeth Buser married to Jakob Furler 29 July 1766, Bubendorf, Baselland, Switzerland

---

Thanks for the family search link for Elsbeth's birth. I had found the information for Elizabeth marrying Jacob Furler in 1766 (25 years after 1741) but had missed the location match. There are a lot of Buser families at this time. Is the location match, birth/marriage date appropriate proximity, and name similarity enough to match these as the same person (a woman)?

---

Yes, there is another (female) Elsbeth Buser born in Bubendorf 29 December 1742, so, I don't know.

But any way I agree with Patricia that it is probably a transcription error. You should perhaps post another question and ask if others have found cases where the gender is transcribed wrong.

I just know that if I search the Swedish census database (SVAR, Folkräkningar) for names ending in -dotter with gender male I get over 600 hits when there should be none (because it is a patronymic for daughters). Some are women coded as male, others are men given the wrong surname.