Trying to Set the Record Straight : There are the winners, the nominees--and then a kind of gray area in history.

When “The Postman (Il Postino)’s” Massimo Troisi was nominated for an Oscar this year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences added his name to its list of previous posthumous nominees.

Conspicuously absent from the list was Jeanne Eagels, named in many movie books as the first posthumous acting nominee, a 1928-29 best actress contender for “The Letter.” But Eagels is no longer considered a nominee.

Call it the case of the vanishing Oscar nominations.

Also obliterated from the records: 1927-28 best actor nominee Richard Barthelmess (“The Noose” and “The Patent Leather Kid”), 1928-29 best actor nominee Paul Muni (“The Valiant”) and even 1927-28 best actor and comedy director nominee Charlie Chaplin (“The Circus”).

The fact is, there were no actual nominees until the third year of the awards. The “nominees” in the first two years were added years later because someone apparently decided that the years should uniformly list a winner and four nominees.

“I went through the awards’ files in the archive and found information to reflect [what actually] happened at that time,” explains Patrick Stockstill, the academy historian since 1983. “I wanted to look at it in the eyes of the people back in 1929.”

His changes were noted in the fine print of Robert Osborne’s “65 Years of the Oscar: The Official History of the Academy Awards” but drew little attention.

Stockstill says he found a “blow-by-blow account of the awards ceremony [in 1929] so we know who was mentioned in that ceremony. That’s why a lot of things were dropped because they were never mentioned.”

Here’s how Stockstill found things worked in the academy’s infancy: Recommendations were made by academy members, with few guidelines. One year, for example, Rin Tin Tin was one member’s suggestion for best actor. Boards of judges responsible for different areas took those suggestions and made their own list of recommendations to a central board of judges. The board would name one winner and possibly include one or two honorable mentions.

Stockstill has never been able to discover who decided to change the records, or when. “I am not exactly sure when those two or three [honorable mentions] filled out to five [nominees].”

He also has no idea how the choices were made. He found out that at least two best picture “nominees,” “The Last Command” and “The Way of All Flesh,” weren’t even mentioned on awards night.

While actors, actresses, directors, writers and movies are now expunged from record books, one name was added.

Corinne Griffith, star of “The Divine Lady,” was considered for an Oscar in 1928-29 but was never recognized as such. Stockstill found her name on the list and has added her to the official records.