When researching in old newspapers, don't count on the first name being right. [View all]

I have a county genealogical website and have all the tombstone transcriptions from all the cemeteries in the county. Many times the old newspapers will have a death notice and have the name of the father instead of the son who did die, or even a brother's name. I can tell because I have the transcriptions and can match the surname and date to the death notice. I usually check the census for the family and add that to the death notice.

Another thing they did was get the wrong sex for a childs death. Again, I can tell by the date of death. I'm very careful when adding obituaries/death notices to the tombstone transcriptions so I have the correct person.
I just wanted to let people here to be aware that newspapers were not infallible.

I have an advantage on my site as I have the census up to 1920, marriage info, cemeteries and the death index from the state and the county to help me add information to the correct person.