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Archiver > TMG > 2000-05 > 0957201946


From: "Cheri Casper" <>
Subject: [TMG-L:] Re: TMG-L: Beginner's Problems - demo
Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 10:25:46 -0700
References: <7B3D67AA81EBD111AC4000A0C96B23F7067F927D@orsmsx32.jf.intel.com>


That may be but there are errors on vital records. My mother's birth
certificate shows that her parents were 24 & 26, but in reality were 18 and
19! My own father's death certificate (he died in January 2000) indicates
that he was a widower. Partially true. My mother died in 1978 and my dad
had remarried but for legal reasons, family complications, and the
probability of ensuing wrongful death lawsuits, it was not noted on his
death certificate that he had no spouse at the time of death. My sister
provided the information for dad's death certificate. Even though she had a
copy of his birth certificate, his place of birth is also incorrectly noted.
My sister inadvertently provided our Grandpa's place of birth (dad's dad),
not daddy's. In times of stress people get things mixed up.

My own daughter has two birth certificates, each with a different last name.
One shows her dad's last name and one shows the combined last name that it
was our intention to give her all along. Getting the second one
necessitated a 3-year legal battle against the state of North Carolina. But
the reality is that she has two on file with N.C.

The state archives of Missouri couldn't find any marriage record for my
parents. Fortunately, when I inquired of my dad for some records when I
started doing genealogy, a copy was sent to me. My parents did, indeed, get
married in Missouri.

These arebut 3 instances in my limited search for information that are
erroneous. So, I am not sure as to the accuracy as to "vital records"
either. And we all are painfully aware of the gross inaccuracies in census
records. Even the 1910 soundex shows my grandmother's maiden name as
"Dering" . . . her last name was Derrington!

----- Original Message -----
From: Grawrock, David <>
To: <>
Sent: Monday, May 01, 2000 9:25 AM
Subject: RE: TMG-L: Beginner's Problems - demo


> 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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