Good Morning all, Re WFT. It does in fact, stand for World Family Tree. Agree with you on the dates. They are practically useless. The broad range that they use for a possible death date is based on a guess as to birth and then they add 60-70 years. Not your best estimate. (but they do put a tag on FTM data) I use both FTM and Family Origins. FO is the favorite though. On the main record screen, you have an option of displaying the selected person in either 'Family Group' or 'Tree' mode. You get five generations displayed at once. So one can assume that the folks in one generation will fall within the ball park as to birth dates. I don't enter a date but if I am looking for an individual I can at least have an educated guess as to when they existed. The same thing can be done when printing out (or displaying on the screen) a pedigree chart. I can, for instance, estimate my 7th great grandfathers time frame by knowing that my 6th great grandfathers (all of them) lived between 1710 and 1730. The other people of that generation range in birth dates from 1715-1730. Best way of estimating that I have discovered. Also I believe a generation is considered 30 years. Average age when people would produce children. Certainly before and afterward, but the average. So if I didn't know Hendrick Pannebecker's dob, but I do know he is my 6th great grandfather. Then I could see there are 8 generations between Hendrick and me, so 8 times 30 = 240. I was born in 1934 so subtract the 240 from my dob and end up with a estimate of 1694. Hendrick was actually born in 1674 and married in 1699 so that isn't bad. Certainly closer than WFT Est. Later Ron Mitchell ----- Original Message ----- From: Vincent E. Summers <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2000 7:19 AM Subject: Re: [ORIGINAL-13] Estimating dates > When I first began my genealogical endeavors, I, like so many others, > went through the FTM files that come with the software package. I had > bought the Deluxe package. If I had it over, I would have still bought > it, but bought the el cheapo package. > > Nevertheless, FTM data lists WFT Est. dates. This stands for World > Family Tree (I think) and is hooey. So now, I merely erase all such > references. I leave a blank. Never hurt a soul, and will mislead no > one. Anyone looking at it will say "He doesn't know that date." > > I, for only research purposes, will subtract 19-22 years for a > generation, to see if it is reasonable for a certain candidate to > fit. But there have been times when I have been 20 or 30 or more > years off! Around civil war times, hey! there were no young men! A > young widow wants a husband and a father for her kids. Ain't nothing > wrong with that!! And so it is that I will list a relative 58 with > a mate in her twenties or so. The first one died. > > So, I am careful to merely look at the 19-22 years as just a guide, as > I am sure our original poster does also. > > Vince > > Marilyn Bosckis wrote: > > > > ><< To guess at year of birth, to fit the right > > > generation is Take away about 20 yrs from the child's birth date.. if you > > > do not have that and do have a marriage date, estimate marriage at age > > > 20ish, then you have your Estimate... If they had Children add one year > > > from the year of the first child born... >> > > > > > >Just be aware that it is only a GUESS! > > > > I've noticed that when people post their family trees on the Web, the > > information can take on more authority than it deserves and it is repeated > > as gospel. My grandmother's youngest sister is shown as the oldest sibling > > in her descendant tree. My grandmother, who was really the oldest sister, > > is shown with an estimated birthdate later than that of the actual > > birthdate of her oldest child. > > > > Marilyn > > Sequim, WA > > > > > > > > > ============================== > > The RootsWeb WorldConnect Project: > > Tens of millions of individuals... and counting. > > http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/ > > > ============================== > Free Web space. ANY amount. ANY subject. > RootsWeb's Freepages put you in touch with millions. > http://cgi.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/acctform.cgi >