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Archiver > TMG > 2000-01 > 0946844807


From: Connie Sheets <>
Subject: TMG-L: Source Surety Values
Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2000 13:26:47 -0700


As a relatively experienced genealogical researcher, new to TMG (and still
trying to decide whether I will completely abandon a large database in BK
for TMG), with a bias that the best genealogical report is produced with a
word processor, I'd like to request a discussion of the surety codes.

How do you use them?

What practical benefits do they give you?

How many of you ignore them completely (i.e. make no attempt to assign a
value)?

My initial inclination is to do the latter, as they seem to me both too
subjective and too restrictive, and I can't conceive of a practical use I
would have for them. I have discovered on many occasions that sources
which "should" be accurate are not, whereas those which "should" be less
accurate are closer to the truth. These discoveries come from finding and
analyzing all available sources and looking at the big picture, usually not
from any one piece of data from any single source that I might label a "3"
surety.

The only one that makes much sense to me is the negative value, but even
then I think I'd be more likely to explain in a Note/Memo why I know the
info is erroneous.

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