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Archiver > TMG > 2002-06 > 1023137648


From: "Cliff Soderback" <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] Place of death
Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 13:54:15 -0700
References: <5.1.0.14.2.20020603070741.036120e8@pop3.norton.antivirus>


snip

> Yes, but then there was my 21G-GF's Bible --
> Hoffman family, [ITAL:]The Holy Bible containing the
> Ould and New Testaments: Translated out of The Original
> Toungues: and with the former translations diligently
> compared and revised.[:ITAL] (Mainz, Germany: Hans
> Gutenberg, 1254); John M. Hoffman, Camargo, Kentucky
>

I hope that old bible is not hidden away, I am sure the later decendents
would enjoy seeing it. Actually it really belongs in a museum.


snip

>
> Up until about five years ago when I came into possession of my 2G-GM's
> Bible, the only record that she married my 2G-GF was a listing in a book
of
> Re-constructed Marriages in the county taken from gravestones because
> marriage records were burned in 1864. The gravestones were used to
> _assume_ a marriage and thus I was relying on an assumption from someone
> else (probably a Surety of zero). Even so, that assumption was (and would
> be) fairly valid given that the stone has "wife of" and her death date
was
> earlier than his. Still that stone could also be forged. <g>
>
>
> Lee Hoffman/KY


I really don't think anyone would actually forge a Gravestone, but when
a second person dies and the family has moved away many times the
stone does not get updated to reflect the second persons death or the
survivor was remarried and buried in another place. The re-constructed
Marriages are only a guess at best. You would lose all the previous
marriages
in any case.

Another poster comment on a pre-dated birth certificate to make the person
appear older, wonder what date will appear on his gravestone.

Everyone one has a different opinion(that's why I brought it up), it is a
huge
Grey area in the recording of facts. The bottom line is "is this fact
actually
true". TMG has a Surety entry which can been used to rate the information.
I see no use in trying to separate, maybe, possibly or could be. Everybody
wrestles with this issue and with the numerous postings on the internet it
will
become a much larger issue in the future. I am always finding tid-bits that
confirm or deny some fact(or fiction). The difficult part is whether to
discard
them or record them. As a practical matter I keep most everything in my
notes,
but only enter into TMG the sources of the confirmed facts, everything else
can be
considered fiction as I cannot verify if it is true.

The popular notion is that you should be able to go to any source and
verify if the fact is true. If you include non-public sources then no one
can
every verify these facts. If this is the case why even bother to record the
source.
I think most of this comes from book writers to like to quote and cite other
works that are publicly available. Genealogy by nature is a private matter
and by in large the information is not publicly available, the only public
records
are marriages, births and deaths and some military records.

My opinion is that we should record verifiable facts as such and presume
the
rest is speculation. I like to think of it as a story about people and their
lives,
verify what we can and try to put the rest of the pieces in perspective. No
story
is cast in stone and as more is learned these parts should be added.

Cliff Soderback



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