Beginning Lesson #9 What to Do With Conflicting Information DearREADERS, How surprised that in the past week there has been an interesting thread of messages on the newsgroup soc.genealogy.methods on the very subject of this week's beginning genealogy lesson - "What to do with conflicting information." You will need to document every source and the dates stated or implied by that source. Read on: 97-02-25 09:31:11 EST From: [email protected] (Jim Royer) Bob Mittelstadt <[email protected]> wrote: >How do we rate our sources? The software I use suggests using a scale >of 0 to 3, with 3 being primary sources and 0 being unreliable sources. >This leaves a lot of room for interpretation, and I, for one, could use >a bit of help determining how various sources would be placed on that >scale. Is there a resource on the Net which explores this subject >quantitatively? Is it silly to even consider treating source >reliability quantitatively? >How would you rate the following? (Feel free to add to the list) >US Census records >State census records >Newspaper obituaries and marriage notices >Cemetery indexes commonly found in libraries >Tombstone information, visual inspection >Relative's recollections >Pension records >Military records >Ancestry File data >Vital records at the county clerk's office >Social Security Death Index >Captions on the back of family photos >Church records, seeing them yourself >Church records, someone else's transcription of them >Internet Web site genealogies >etc. >Bob Mittelstadt >(Who feels better finding two or three sources that agree on any given event.) I don't consider anything solid until I can find at least two seperate sources that list the same date (without depending on each other). I just ran into this tonight. A great-grand uncle is listed in both the 1850 and 1860 census for Wisconsin. Both list his age that would correlate to him having been born sometime between September 1840 and June 1841. I have his death certificate which indicates that he was born on Sept 17, 1841. Depending on which source I had access to I could be off by up to a year. The ages on the census were given by his parents where the death certificate info was given by a friend who had known him for 25 years. As it turns out I also have a copy of an application for a Veteren's Pension (he was in the civil war) where HE listed his date of birth as Sept 17, 1840. Now I have 4 sources with varying dates. Two of them (the census) give a broad range which happens to encompass that data the individual wrote and signed to himself. The 1841 date is given only by a freind. I accept the year 1840 as accurate.... I also can pretty much swallow the Sept 17 date since both the friend and the individual himself give it. I have to guess that the friend was one year off in her date.... The real boneheaded thing is that all four sources only list his place of birth as New York.... No stinkin' town on any of them! ARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!! I consider Web Pages, Ancestry Files (IGI etc), relative recollections and family photos as finding aids only. Anything else above BY ITSELF I would rate a 1. If I found 3 or more sources with the same data then I would move my probablity of being correct up to the 3 rating (and I would quote all the sources). Headstone data is usually accurate for the date of death but I would give the DOB a 5. My $.02 worth. Jim Royer [email protected] Date: 97-02-25 09:34:03 EST From: [email protected] (Charles Oliver) It is interesting that you bring this up. I am putting together a book on the descendants of a John Kuhn who came here circa 1852 from Prussia. He had a daughter named Carrie (Caroline). Seems that very few sources agreed on her year of birth. I have the following: Family Bible (hers, from when she married) 4 July 1855. Death certificate: 4 July 1855. November 1878 Marriage certificate: 22 years old [1856] 1880 Census: 22 years old [1858] 1887 Newspaper article detailing divorce: 32 years old [1855] 1910 Census: 48 [1862] 1920 Census: 60 [1860] Notice we have three sources that agree on 1855, two of them "good" sources. However, there is also the following: 1860 Census: 6 years old [1854] 1870 Census: 17 years old [1853] Now, remembering that her *date* of birth is listed as 4 July (which I would expect to be true; after all, people *do* celebrate birthdays). The dates when the information was gathered for the 1860 and 1870 Census fell in June. Therefore, the one year discrepancy between the two dates essentially disappears. She *was* six, soon to be seven, in 1860; she was nearly 17 in 1870, and that was the age that was given. Further, the information on the 1860 and 1870 Censuses was given by her *parents*, not by her. Therefore, I conclude that her date of birth was 4 July 1853. The problem is not one of heirarchy; you have to get *all* of the information, regardless of reliability, and look at the whole picture. READERS, Be careful to note all instances of dates and their sources in the notes option of your genealogy management program. This leaves a big audit trail. If new evidence comes along, it must be compared with existing information to form a preponderance of evidence.