The list of Sussex Co marriages at genealogy trails.com/del/sussex is extremely helpful. But some of the entries seem, when compared to other records, to be incorrect. In particular, the date 1 Jan occurs improbably often (e.g., 140 times out of some 400+ entries for the C index). Is there some systematic use of this date to mean perhaps unknown month & day, but known year, or even unknown day, month, & year? I do not see any explanation at the genealogy trails website of the sources used to compile the index. Is there any way to trace the original records? Alan Bell, Boulder, Colorado

Alan, I just looked at the list and saw several Wharton listings of interest to me ... I bet that “January 1” was used as a placeholder, but it’d be nice to know for sure. The source for the list is shown as “FHL FILM NUMBER 0006416-0006422.” It’d be nice to know underlying sources, etc., and I wonder if some might be on the film, but beggars can’t be choosers. Dave From: Alan Bell Sent: Saturday, November 24, 2012 11:57 AM To: lower-delmarva-roots@rootsweb.com Subject: [LDR] Sussex marriages The list of Sussex Co marriages at genealogy trails.com/del/sussex is extremely helpful. But some of the entries seem, when compared to other records, to be incorrect. In particular, the date 1 Jan occurs improbably often (e.g., 140 times out of some 400+ entries for the C index). Is there some systematic use of this date to mean perhaps unknown month & day, but known year, or even unknown day, month, & year? I do not see any explanation at the genealogy trails website of the sources used to compile the index. Is there any way to trace the original records? Alan Bell, Boulder, Colorado *************************************** QUESTIONS about POSTING GUIDELINES, SUBSCRIBING or UNSUBSCRIBING? Visit The Lower DelMarVa Roots Mailing List FAQ: http://www.tyaskin.com/handley/ldrfaq.htm ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LOWER-DELMARVA-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

The date of 1 Jan (yr.) appears as the date of marriage in records from the Marriage Records card file at DPA (filmed by LDS) when the marriage was taken, NOT from a marriage record but from a probate record sometime in that (yr.). It should be interpreted as "married by (yr.)". I do not recall precisely exactly which started using the 1 Jan date. If it is not part of Ancestry's Delaware Marriage Records, 1744-1912, it can be found on film at FHL. It is useful for the information about the applicable probate which often helps identify the couple. On Sat, Nov 24, 2012 at 11:57 AM, Alan Bell <Alan.Bell@colorado.edu> wrote: > The list of Sussex Co marriages at genealogy trails.com/del/sussex is > extremely helpful. But some of the entries seem, when compared to other > records, to be incorrect. In particular, the date 1 Jan occurs improbably > often (e.g., 140 times out of some 400+ entries for the C index). > > Is there some systematic use of this date to mean perhaps unknown month & > day, but known year, or even unknown day, month, & year? > > I do not see any explanation at the genealogy trails website of the > sources used to compile the index. Is there any way to trace the original > records? > > Alan Bell, Boulder, Colorado > *************************************** > QUESTIONS about POSTING GUIDELINES, SUBSCRIBING or UNSUBSCRIBING? > Visit The Lower DelMarVa Roots Mailing List FAQ: > http://www.tyaskin.com/handley/ldrfaq.htm > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > LOWER-DELMARVA-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > -- Marjorie "Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars."~ Henry Van Dyke