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Archiver > TMG > 2000-01 > 0946858396


From: "Gary D. Kee" <>
Subject: Re: TMG-L: Source Surety Values
Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2000 18:13:16 -0600


I'm new like Connie and also like Connie would like to get a better handle on
using the surety values so I don't wind up with them unusable when I get
everything changed over. However, unlike Connie, I just know :) that this is one
on the good points of TMG if it is worked right. Right off, I like to share
GEDCOM but sometimes I have some relationships or "facts" that I am working on
that I would rather not send out to just anybody but want then in the database to
help me work. Maybe some specific examples would give us newcomers some
insight.

Right now I am going through some birth dates, death dates, and burial places
using a published cemetery listing for a particular county. I've used it enough
in the past to feel good about it being accurate as to what is actually on the
tombstones as it matched the tombstones I had read. I am assigning a value of 3
for the person, 2 for the date and 3 for the place. (Right now, I am certain that
the tombstone is the person the person I am working with, if I had reservations
about that I would probably move that down a level or two along with the other
values.) Comments?

Been a lot of discussion about census records. What kind of values does
everybody assign them?

Now, if I have three source that indicate the same birth date, say three census
records that I have assigned a value of 2, and no source that would indicate
otherwise, I would tend to believe that the date itself is as sure as I will
ever be of it. How would I get it to a level 3 surety for report purposes
without changing one of the census record surety values? The only thing I have
thought of is to create something like a 'preponderance of evidence' source with
a value of 3. Is something like that logical give how TMG works?

The negative sign for false data could be of great value. There are some false
dates that are often quoted in my tree that I would like in what I send out. How
would you get a report to print with surety values of 2, 3 and - but not 0 and 1?

One great thing about TMG that I have already discover is the ability to assign
sources globally with surety values. I have some 'branches' that I have received
through GEDCOM's. I imported the whole file, split off the branch that I want
into a separate TMG file and assign a source and surety value to everything.
Everything great so far. Now after working with the data (and importing it into
my main database) I find it is either better or worse than I first thought, can I
reassign a different surety value globally to just that source GEDCOM?

Gary

Connie Sheets wrote:

> 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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