Eliz, I like your "@----ish" notation a lot. It adds a welcome air of whimsy to this business that is very, very serious business to us genealogy obsessives. In my own records, I find myself using this notation: circa or ca. = I have several pieces of (preferably sourced) evidence for this date, but I'm not yet sure which is true ? or est. = I'm guessing, based on tangential evidence, on rough calculations, or on just gut feeling I'm interested in notations that other people use in their own records. PJ > > When I am totally without an idea as to birth date, I use 25 years > before the first child I know and format it @1825ish <G> if that > doesn't say I am at sea I don't know what does <G> > > >

I use "abt" or "bef" when I'm recording a date guess, and I subtract 15 years for a generation. I use "Unknown" for first names when I want to add an unknown person. It helps me to add these holding places in my family tree as I'm filling in generations and connecting children to unknown parents. -----Original message----- From: pjsalis@hal-pc.org To: irl-dublin@rootsweb.com Sent: Tue, Jul 24, 2012 20:21:11 EDT Subject: [IRL-DUBLIN] Notation for iffy dates Eliz, I like your "@----ish" notation a lot. It adds a welcome air of whimsy to this business that is very, very serious business to us genealogy obsessives. In my own records, I find myself using this notation: circa or ca. = I have several pieces of (preferably sourced) evidence for this date, but I'm not yet sure which is true ? or est. = I'm guessing, based on tangential evidence, on rough calculations, or on just gut feeling I'm interested in notations that other people use in their own records. PJ > > When I am totally without an idea as to birth date, I use 25 years > before the first child I know and format it @1825ish <G> if that > doesn't say I am at sea I don't know what does <G> > > > ****************************** Topic: A mailing list for anyone with a genealogical interest in County Dublin, Ireland and the City of Dublin. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to IRL-DUBLIN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

@=circa which makes it nice <G> but I add querys even if I am "really" unsure! <G> But most importantly it calls my attention to unfinished business. I find so many of my family in the census (until I found a lot of my supposed brother of my 2Xggfather and found the marriages of them and the kids on Irish Genealogy!!) and sometimes I don't even get to enter the parents for a while. OR I "get" that I have a pair or more of sisters married to brothers but haven't a clue to the parents so I call them Mr Smith and Mrs [Smith] and fill them in if and when I find them, and it could be years! If viewers can't figure that I know nothing about these people <G> shame on them, but the conventions are for me to let me know what is what. Eliz On Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 8:21 PM, <pjsalis@hal-pc.org> wrote: > > Eliz, > > I like your "@----ish" notation a lot. It adds a welcome air of whimsy to > this business that is very, very serious business to us genealogy > obsessives. > > In my own records, I find myself using this notation: > circa or ca. = I have several pieces of (preferably sourced) evidence for > this date, but I'm not yet sure which is true > ? or est. = I'm guessing, based on tangential evidence, on rough > calculations, or on just gut feeling > > I'm interested in notations that other people use in their own records. > > PJ > > >> >> When I am totally without an idea as to birth date, I use 25 years >> before the first child I know and format it @1825ish <G> if that >> doesn't say I am at sea I don't know what does <G> >> >> >> > > ****************************** > Topic: A mailing list for anyone with a genealogical interest in County Dublin, Ireland and the City of Dublin. > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to IRL-DUBLIN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message