TMG-L Archives

Archiver > TMG > 2003-07 > 1057097508


From: "Darrell A. Martin" <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] Calculating Year of Birth
Date: Tue, 01 Jul 2003 17:11:48 -0500
In-Reply-To: <HKEAILJGMJHCENIGONKOIEKNEMAA.chornung@comcast.net>


At 01:36 PM 7/1/03 -0400, Carol Hornung wrote:
>In an historic record, it states that so-and-so was 58 years old in
>1653.
>
>Based on that one record, what years would you use to show the possible
>years of birth: "1594-1595" or "1595-1596"?
>
> TIA! ~Carol in Detroit

Hi, Carol:

I keep it simple. "Circa 1595" is my choice. In the case of a situation
where the exact nature of my reasoning is important to the narrative, which
is rarely, I would add in the Memo field "based on his reported age in
1653" or something along those lines.

The reason why I rarely use such details in the Tag sentence is that I
always quote the relevant text in my Citation Detail. (Or I will, when I
get all my source citations brought up to snuff [grin].) For example, in
the infamous "Dingy Green Parchment of Greater Little Bludgeon" there may
be a list of persons, in a specific context. Citing the document *as a
whole* for the birth of one John Buck is not much use. Providing the exact
reference by page and paragraph is better, of course, but still requires
the reader to get a look at the original -- or at least a transcription of
part of it -- for real understanding. So besides the proper reference
information, I put in the CD:

in a list of Lord Feignworthy's tenants in
1653, "John Bukke age 58"

I find that both for the reader *and* for myself, this aids a great deal in
determining whether "Dingy Green ..." is being referred to in general
terms, or whether it actually speaks directly to the specific conclusion I
am recording (that John Buck was born circa 1595), or something in between.
It also helps tremendously in nailing down what I mean by "circa 1595" when
I use it as the date of John Buck's birth.

The drawback to this approach is that one's citations can sometimes
overwhelm the narrative. I find that an acceptable price to pay; others may
not.

Darrell


Darrell Allen MARTIN
a native Vermonter currently in exile in Addison, Illinois
www.darrell-martin.net/genealogy/

This thread: