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Archiver > TMG > 2000-05 > 0957198331


From: "Grawrock, David" <>
Subject: [TMG-L:] RE: TMG-L: Beginner's Problems - demo
Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 09:25:31 -0700


You must be very careful here. I "know" that my grandmothers birth date 8
Mar 1911, we always celebrated it on that day. However when doing some
research I ordered her birth certificate. DOB was 5 Mar 1911. So I showed
this to my grandmother and she said well it must be wrong as we always
celebrated my birthday with my father who was born on 8 Mar.

Now we don't have anyone to ask anymore but I'd be willing to bet that the
family made it a joint birthday party every year and that my grandmother
just grew up thinking her birthday was with her dad. Margaret throughout her
life put down 8 Mar whenever she listed her birth date. As a matter of fact
my mother used 8 Mar on Margaret's death certificate.

Now while 3 days makes no big difference it just shows that what we "know"
when we use people's memory just doesn't have the surety that a contemporary
source does.

David

-----Original Message-----
From: Lee Hoffman/KY [mailto:]
Sent: Monday, May 01, 2000 6:44 AM
To:
Subject: Re: TMG-L: Beginner's Problems - demo


wrote:
>I do have a question for the pros out there on sources. I'll pick one
>example here but the general theme extends to many of my people. How would
I
>list the source for my grandmother's date of birth. I haven't seen a birth

>certificate but I know it is her birthday. I can't go out and get birth
>certificates for every person that I have this situation for. This thing
>with the sources really has me wondering. I'm at a standstill with
>everything wondering how to enter a source.

Most of us have data like this when we begin. Such data is well known to
us and some of we have actually witnessed ourselves. For these cases, I
have a Source that I created called "Personal Knowledge" using the Mills
Interview Source Category. This or something similar may be what you need.
This is excellent for your children's birth and such thing that you
personally witnessed. It might also be used for your grandmother's date of
birth except that you would want to use a low Surety Value and/or some
remarks in the Citation Detail.

While you may _know_ your gramdmother's date of birth (I know mine), that
knowledge is usually of a secondary nature at best. In my case, I know it
because my mother told me and that is when I remember it being celebrated.
Thus the reliability is not as high and actually is rather low since my
knowledge is hearsay based on hearsay. Now if I had gained my knowledge
from my great-grandparents Bible and the entry of my grandmother's birth
date (which Bible is no longer available), then the reliability of my
knowledge increases some as I base my statement on contemporary written
data.

Thus for interim purposes, you could document your grandmother's birth date
like this. But at the same time, I would enter a task in the Research Log
noting that I need to find a more contemporary source to support the date.
This might be an old family Bible, a letter stating an date and age at the
time, census data, etc. Enter in the Keywords field any words, acronyms,
abbreviations, or codes of places where you might find documents supporting
the data. Then as you go on a research trip (to the local courthouse,
library, parent's home, Fort Wayne's Allen Co. Public Library, Washington,
DC, or wherever), you can generate a List of Tasks report based on the
Keyword that represents where you expect to search for this data.

Hope this helps -



----------
Lee Hoffman/KY
E-mail:
TMG Tips: <http://www.tmgtips.com>;
My website: <http://www.tmgtips.com/lhoffman>;
--------------
A user of the best genealogy program, The Master Genealogist (TMG)

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