A Book’s Index Isn’t Always Enough

Most people find a book related to their family or a location their family lived, and immediately look for an index.  If the book has an index, they look for their surname(s), refer to the page(s), make copies (or record the information), and move on.  I myself am guilty of this, especially when time is limited, even though I know indexes are not always complete.

Over the last several days, I have been reading the book, History of Oakland County, Michigan:  A Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, its People, and it Principal Interests, Volume 1, written by Thaddeus D. Seeley, 1912.  I had consulted this book a few times before, mainly performing the aforementioned steps.  But I wanted to learn more about the county so I began reading the book, cover to cover.

Aside from learning more about the area where my ancestors lived, I also discovered there were more mentions of my ancestors than previously found using the index.  Below is a comparison of the indexed entries and the additional references that were not included in the index, for the people I was researching.

Name	Index	Additional References
Nathaniel Millard	119, 191, 405	236, 404, 412
Samuel Norton	11, 299, 312	342, 365, 366
Frank Norton	not included	438
Gad Norton	33, 400	409
John D. Norton	245, 301, 303	224, 265, 304, 307, 360
John M. Norton	58	none found
Calvin C. Parks	124	120, 197
Robert Parks	452	272
Aaron Webster	290, 362	32, 43, 59, 119
Alanson J. Webster	not included	225
Charles P. Webster	140	none found
Chester Webster	not included	41, 288
Elmer R. Webster	140, 152, 229, 333, 337	none found
James Webster	218	225

As you can see, just in this handful of names, there are many discrepancies.  The lesson learned here is that sometimes, the index isn’t enough.