What does GerGerman mean on a 1910 Fed Census in Iowa?

+3 votes
166 views
I'm looking at old census records from 1910.  I have several from Iowa that list where born and parents from as GerGerman, why not just German?

Here is an example:Record:
https://records.myheritagelibraryedition.com/research/record-10132-24132738/john-j-smid-in-1910-united-states-federal-census

John J Smid
Year: 1910; State: Iowa; County: Lyon; Township: Wheeler; NARA Publication: T624; Sheet: 3-A; Page: 1104; Line: 22
in Genealogy Help by Kathy Wright G2G6 Mach 1 (10.0k points)

Hi Kathy,

I found a explanation online

We all know that the first step was for the recorder to go door-to-door and take down the information. However, what is less well-known are the next two steps. The sheets were then posted publicly--usually at the post office--to have corrections made by the citizens who were just enumerated. Finally, after those corrected sheets were taken down, several copies were made. This was done by hand copying the original document. (Think there's some room for transcription error here?!?) The copies were done so that the county, state, etc. could have that info for their purposes. If those other copies survive, they can prove invaluable as a doublecheck, but they're usually long gone.

It's my belief that sometime during the correcting/copying phase is when the entire term "Germany" was entered onto the sheets. (Yes, I've seen it too.) The recorder entered "Ger." on the sheet to get the count done quickly when going door-to-door, but then was required to clarify it with "Germany" in order to submit it to the US Census Burea.

Best regards

You mean to say that it is a third party copy of a document that was originally written by a second party only to be fiddled with by the first party later? Oh, the possibility of errors! Good catch, Steve.
Thank you so much

Please log in or register to answer this question.

Related questions

+5 votes
1 answer
2.5k views asked Jul 9, 2017 in The Tree House by Ron Moore G2G6 Mach 2 (22.4k points)
+13 votes
2 answers
+10 votes
3 answers
+5 votes
1 answer
1.4k views asked May 3, 2017 in Genealogy Help by Carolyn Martin G2G6 Pilot (281k points)
+6 votes
1 answer
306 views asked Nov 21, 2016 in Genealogy Help by Ellen Smith G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)

WikiTree  ~  About  ~  Help Help  ~  Search Person Search  ~  Surname:

disclaimer - terms - copyright

...