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Archiver > TMG > 2000-05 > 0957368379
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Subject: [TMG-L:] Re: TMG-L: Beginner's Problems - demo
Date: Wed, 3 May 2000 11:39:39 EDT
Lee-I was just trying to suggest that there are a lot of ways to do things in
TMG and sometimes the way one does things sometimes depends on the situation.
Some of it is personal also. In the case of entering data in the memo field
and then changing later my system goes something like this. First you have to
know that my filing system is pretty chaotic. Now I know I could do better,
but probably won't change at my age. Thus if I have a bit of data about my
grandmother I want to use, it is far better for me to stick the info in a
memo field in TMG than to file it in my system and try and find it several
weeks, months later when I get time or the energy to get back to it. You can
bet however that before I started entering census data of which I have lots
of, I set myself up a practice set, read your tutorials, read Diane's
suggestions, bought Elizabeth's book on sources and spent some considerable
time setting up a system in TMG that I could live with long term. I also
prefer a great deal more narrative text than some other folks. Sometimes I
arrive at birth years, for example, rather circuitlously. I take other dates
in the person's life and in some cases I would have a great deal of
difficulty making a sentence on a tag read the way I need to make the
explanation. I have a 6th or so great grandfather who fought with Braddock at
Fort Duquesne in 1755. I know he was dead before 1780. I have arrived at a
birth year of c1730 based on the following. His father died in 1749 and left
him an orphan. I studied up a bit and orphans were under 21. So the old boy
was born after 1728. He was bound out as a carpenter in that same year 1749.
I read up on the process of bounding out in colonial days and found that
normally a kid had to be 14 to be bound out. That says my ancestor was
probably born before 1735. I found many records recorded by George Washington
about the colonial troops of the day. Although my ancestor was not listed, I
took a large sample of the soldiers and found they were about 75% in their
20s, and lesser amounts in the teens, 30s and 40s. Thus one would guess that
the old boy was probably in his 20s in 1755, take the midpoint of 25 and
c1730 is a good guess. I further researched the age of British troops of the
era. The colonial troops were recruited to flesh out the regular British
regiments for this campaign so it makes sense that the colonials would have
been recruited to "fit" the same criteria as their English counterparts. The
British regulations called for soldiers between 18 and 36. Again a best guess
at about 25 and so again a speculated c1730 birth year. I could go on. His
eldest son was born c1750, so the c1730 date pops up again as a probability.
So although no document exists with Willie's birth year, I would bet the farm
it is within two or three years of 1730. So if I want anyone reading my
stuff to know how I arrived at his age I almost have to use a narrative form.
My sources sometimes are a great many different events that all together
'keep coming back to the same date. So did I make my case for memos. "Splice
the mainbrace"- Dale
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