William, perhaps you are jumping too quickly to a conclusion about what this means. First, you need to be sure what type of IGI reference you are seeing. Is it *just* a user-contributed database with a high probability of both missing and wrong information? Or, is it an actual extract of a vital record? Was the "missing child" one who was born at home, presented for baptism, and the officiant didn't know the exact date of birth so only wrote the year? When you say you wrote for the "birth extract" do you mean you got the official record of the birth as recorded in the register? Perhaps if you give more specific information, either here or on the surname list for that person, someone will have the data you seek to clear up this mystery. Regards, Sharyn ----- Original Message ----- From: "William Innes" <w.innes@sympatico.ca> To: <MORAY-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2005 7:36 AM Subject: [MORAY] My spirits are low > This is William. > > I find myself getting very paranoid or is it due to the fact that it is just > frustration. > > Here is what my problem is: On a few occasions, while looking at the IGI, I > have come across inscriptions which gives me a name but for the date it only > gives me the year. To be more specific, in this instance, I tried to find > how many siblings there were in one specific family and it would give me all > the names including the complete birth dates except one would only show the > year of birth. > > So, at this point, I order the birth extracts for the whole family and when > I get them, there is one missing. Guess which one!!! > > I firmly believe that this inscription was put in there to simply hide the > fact that someone had an illicit affair and also had the power to make > changes so that this birth was not necessarily his or hers. > > Any suggestions. > > Can anyone get my spirits up today? > > William in Montreal