Hi Listers! I was wondering if I might post the following question: I am researching the Cain surname in County Durham, and prior to that, in Cumberland. Edward Cain, born in Donegal, Ireland in about 1787 to 1788, married Margaret, surname unknown, who was born in County Down, Irland, in about 1785. I found an entry on the IGI that says that Edward Cain married Margaret in about 1812, in County Down. It says that the record was submitted by a LDS member after 1991. Does anyone know how I can find the source, or whether the submitter would be so kind to share it? The first child of Edward and Margaret that I know of was born in about 1820 in Maryport, but there could have been more children that they had in Ireland earlier. Does anyone have any thoughts? Janet

Dear Janet, You need to be very sceptical about anything on the IGI that uses the word 'about' when designating the date of a life event. It means that whoever inserted the entry (and it will be from an individual rather than the LDS's organised programme of parish register transcriptions) had not copied it from an original record but had simply guessed at a year. Such entries are often worthless and belong to fantasy family history rather than proper research. Having just looked up the entry you refer to, I see that the spouse is described as 'Mrs Margaret Cain', that both 'dates' are vague guesses and that no parish is specified. Sorry, but all that indicates that the 'source' is someone's imagination rather than written records. Best wishes, Peter Griffiths -----Original Message----- From: Janet Hopkins [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 11 September 2007 23:17 To: [email protected] Subject: [ENG-DURHAM] re source of IGI entry Hi Listers! I was wondering if I might post the following question: I am researching the Cain surname in County Durham, and prior to that, in Cumberland. Edward Cain, born in Donegal, Ireland in about 1787 to 1788, married Margaret, surname unknown, who was born in County Down, Irland, in about 1785. I found an entry on the IGI that says that Edward Cain married Margaret in about 1812, in County Down. It says that the record was submitted by a LDS member after 1991. Does anyone know how I can find the source, or whether the submitter would be so kind to share it? The first child of Edward and Margaret that I know of was born in about 1820 in Maryport, but there could have been more children that they had in Ireland earlier. Does anyone have any thoughts? Janet