Genealogy Goulash Dates to Keep in Mind by Paula Stuart-Warren, CGRS [printed with prior permission of Juliana Smith, Editor of Ancestry Daily News] Dates are so important in our family searches. They impact the veracity of family stories and records. What I am referring to in today's column is historical dates. It might be the date of a momentous event in history, of the creation of a record, of an invention, or of the date that invention was publicly available. A typed record book that includes all pre-1850 information is not the original. If grandma told you that when she was born in 1901 her father drove her mother to the hospital in his Model T that might be a problematic date. The Model T did not roll into our ancestor's lives in 1908. Situations such as this mean it is time to reconnoiter and check details. My aim is to cause you to pause and think about the creation of a record or index that appears to be the original before automatically accepting it. Typed and Easy-on-the-Eyes After reading older records for a few hours you are thrilled when the next set of records to be checked has a beautifully typed index. It was so considerate of those clerks to type rather than hand-write the entries. Or perhaps the old will book is typed rather than handwritten. It might be a good idea to contain your excitement a bit. Was there a typewriter in use at that courthouse when great-grandpa's 1859 will was transcribed into the will book? The first real public use typewriters were marketed by the Remington Arms Company in 1873. A typed index that begins with 1820s entries was created years later. Your typed 1859 will is likely not the "original." It is likely a clerk first transcribed your ancestor's original will into a record book. Errors could have been made during this transcription. A tired clerk may have abbreviated words or used initials rather than full given and middle names. A later clerk then prepared a typed version of these handwritten entries and there is a possibility of another round of errors. City Directory Entry Your great-grandparents lived in a city and shows up in the city directory. Let's say you are trying to narrow down his date of death. He appears in the 1893, 1894, 1895, and 1896 directories. Generally, in the case of a married couple at that time period, only the husband is listed. The 1897 lists neither him nor does it list his wife as a widow. The 1898 directory lists her as a widow. Did he die in 1897, 1898, or was it 1896? Check to see if the city directory has any information in the opening pages that give an indication of when the directory information was gathered. A few do give clues. For some years, the information gathering may actually have been done at the end of the previous year. I would suggest trying 1897 and 1896 for the death date. If those are not the death years, expand the search to include 1895 and 1898. The Family Bible You finally track down the old family Bible. You are in luck--it does have a couple pages of family data. As you study it you note that it gives you dates of birth, death, and marriage for three generations. You are so excited that you keep reading it and can hardly believe your good fortune. On the fifth read-through, you note that the handwriting for almost all the names and dates is the same! If you paid attention in your genealogy class you will know to be suspicious of this. Check the date of publication of the Bible--do the earliest dates written on the family page pre-date that publication date? Perhaps a family member purchased a Bible and did some retroactive family entries. This presents a likelihood of mistaken memory when recording the data. Born in a Specific County? Did your mother tell you that her grandmother was born in 1865 in DeKalb County, Illinois? Before entering that data onto a family group sheet or computer database, check to see when DeKalb County was officially formed. Checking the 2004 edition of the Red Book (published by Ancestry) shows that DeKalb County's official date is 1837. It was created from Kane County, so technically, your ancestor was born in Kane County. You also need to check on state, territorial, and country dates of origin. Many countries have had several instances of changing borders and country name. Once again, understanding the history of a place is vital. Served in the Civil War? <http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?sourceid=10891&targetid=5164> The military stories handed down include one about an ancestor who died during his Civil War service in 1860 or just that in 1860 he served in the Civil War. The Civil War began in April of 1861. It is possible that your ancestor did have military service, perhaps he served in a home guard or local militia unit. That unit may have evolved into a full-blown unit that did also serve during 1861-65. Once again, the dates are important. Homesteaded in 1852? Have you read an old family history or some site online that tells about the Murphy family that homesteaded in 1852? The Homestead Act was not until 1862, and perhaps the story is that the family had located their new home on a piece of land in 1852 and just always called it their homestead. Often, those not familiar with the actual Homestead Act date use the term homestead to indicate some early settlement of the family on land in the westward moving frontier. The Moral of These Stories? Check the facts. Check the history. Check the version of the record. Check the handwriting. Your family history details will be far better than others who just accept things at face value or who wouldn't dare doubt the story grandpa told them. Some Other Dates to Keep in Mind * First general use telephone: By 1878, Alexander Graham Bell had set up the first telephone exchange in New Haven, Connecticut. By 1884, long distance connections were made between Boston and New York City. * The first telephone directory appeared in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1878 and was a one full-page long! If your family lived in Chicago in 1878 they were not listed in the first telephone directory. * 1958 was the year the first commercial photocopier made its debut. Some earlier versions existed but they were not as widely available. There were also some other types of earlier photo duplication equipment; these also were not as widely available as today's photocopiers. If you are still curious about other "firsts" and dates that may impact your family history, check these websites. * History of the Office (About.com) http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bloffice.htm * "The Copying Pencil: Composition, History, and Conservation Implications" (American Institute for Conservation) http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/bpg/annual/v17/bp17-05.html * Antique Copying Machines (Early Office Museum) www.officemuseum.com/copy_machines.htm ________________________________ Sally Rolls Pavia sallypavia2001@yahoo.com "Those who dislike the cat . were in a former life, a rat." List Owner: GENEALOGYBITSANDPIECES-L-request@rootsweb.com Archives: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/GENEALOGYBITSANDPIECES "All incoming and outgoing email checked by Norton Anti-Virus"