Editorial Comments
Editorial comments are to advise of information about a person in the BDA records which was not transcribed directly from the source material. Editorial comments can appear in three areas in BDA :
• within a biographical item
• as a biographical item
• within the header of a biographical report
Editorial comments within a biographical item :
These are usually towards the end of a biographical item and are preceded by an identification tag such as “Editor’s Remarks:” followed by the editorial advice note. They are usually to supplement or clarify a detail which was transcribed from the original source but which does not reflect the actual event which occurred. For instance, a convict may be listed in records for intended transport on one ship although they were actually transported on a different ship.
Editorial comments as a biographical item :
A religious minister or other church functionary may appear in dozens or hundreds of records where they officiated or were the appointed witness at a baptism, a marriage or a burial. Including each of these records in a person’s biographical report would swamp records of the personal and family life of the minister or functionary. In BDA we have compiled an editorial biographical item which specifies the approximate number and range of years for services performed. The ‘List All Persons’ link for these will display a complete listing of all the persons for whom the church services were conducted. A similar type of editorial biographical item has been compiled for employers listed in a muster who had a large number of assigned convicts.
Editorial comments within the header of a biographical report :
To avoid an unwieldy list of names, where the number of persons listed are more than 100 for church events and 30 for assigned convicts, the compiled editorial note has been moved to the header of their biographical report.
Other editorial additions in the header section are added where important information for the person is not noted in any of the items in their biographical report, and is not related to a particular chronological event in their report.
This general information page has been compiled by Gary Luke, July 2013.
The text on this page is copyright. Permission to reproduce it should be obtained from BDA.