Examine Documents Closely!

I was doing a search on Ancestry.com for family and came across a tree with my great-grandfather's death certificate attached. Hugh McDonald Prall was the youngest child and son of Isaac Rittenhouse Prall and Ann Bathia Rhodes. He died in 1907 and his widow, Margaret Jane Wolary Prall was the informant. Isaac Prall was given as the father and Anna _________ was given as the mother. A word was scribbled in the upper portion of the "mother's name" box that the person who generated the tree interpreted as "Guberman." Thus, Ann Bathia Rhodes Guberman was given as Hugh's mother.

Ann married Isaac in 1828. She was 16. Her aunt, Bathia Cunningham Porter, who had raised Ann from about six, had married Isaac's father the previous year. Isaac and Ann named daughters for both her mother [Harriet Cunningham Prall] and aunt [Bathia Porter Prall]. Ann died about 1865 [age 53]. Her only known marriage was to Isaac and there are no Gubermans in the Rhodes or Prall lines. So where did the 'Guberman' come from?

After notifying the tree's owner of the Guberman issue, I reexamined the death certificate, The handwriting in the "mother's name" box was a bit hard to read and the letters quite spread out. Having run into this particular handwriting issue with Ama / Amy [Smith] Crousore, it didn't take long to figure out the problem. GUBERMAN was UNKNOWN!

Margaret was either unaware of or could not recall her deceased husband's mother's maiden name. The box read "Anna Unknown." I again emaied the owner of the tree,

Pay attention to documents and examine them closely. Don't let lousy penmanship mess you up!!