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Archiver > TMG > 2004-04 > 1080826660


From: <>
Subject: Re: Re: [TMG] sourcing false information
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 8:37:40 -0500


Okay, I think I will do that.
>
> From: Darrell Martin <>
> Date: 2004/03/31 Wed PM 11:01:51 EST
> To:
> Subject: Re: [TMG] sourcing false information
>
> At 06:53 PM 3/31/04, wrote:
> >Today I was researching my 2nd great grandfather, whom I was pretty sure did not have a will. I researched all the will books, inventory books, guardian books (even though his only known son was grown), record books, etc for the county in which he was living and found no indication of any will or inventory etc. for him. I would like to record that he died intestate, and am wondering, should I use the microfilm rolls I searched as my sources, even if he wasn't found on them. I want my reader to know I did research all the available records (about 10 rolls), but I'm not sure how to source when the records prove that something DIDN'T happen instead of that it DID.
> >Teresa Ghee Elliott via remote location. :)
>
> Greetings:
>
> I would create a Tag "NoWillFound", or something like that, with a sentence something like "So far, no documentary evidence for a will for [P] has been found." I would attach each source searched as a citation, putting the precise search information in the Citation Detail.
>
> I would *not* say that a person was "Intestate" unless a probate record was found indicating so. "Intestate" doesn't mean "so far there is no evidence of a will", it means "estate was probated with the determination that no valid will was proved". Genealogically, the difference is crucial. One is the mere absence of a record of document W; the other is the existence of a record stating that document W was not found, as of a particular event (probate).
>
> In reports, I would decide whether the target audience (often only myself) would want to read the "NoWillFound" Tag sentence, and include or exclude it accordingly.
>
> Darrell
>
>
> Darrell A. Martin
> a native Vermonter currently in exile in Illinois
> http://www.darrell-martin.net/genealogy
>
>
>
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