MAESSEX-L Archives
Archiver > MAESSEX > 2002-02 > 1012584082
From:
Subject: Re: [MAESSEX] VR inaccuracies
Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2002 12:21:22 EST
In a message dated 2/1/02 11:20:15 AM Eastern Standard Time,
writes:
> I don't have a birth date for my Great Grandfather, but I have his obituary,
> and that is much more important than another date to record.
Depends on what you use that obit for.
If you are using it to get some human and familial sense of the
man (his bio with -say- maiden name of wife) certainly!
On the other hand, if you are using the obit for dates, then other than
his death date, certainly not.
One 'rule' of genealogy, is that contemporary records are more reliable
than non-contemporary records.
Also, If you _know_ that that specific man in the obit _was_ your great
grandfather. That's pretty far back to go for family history. One of my
great-grandfathers was born in 1823.
I have great confidence of who he _really_ was not because of family
history:nobody knew but his granddaughter my aunt who had done
research on our family 50 years ago. I was able to confirm her research
on great-grandfather was because great-grandfather's will identified his
wife,
siblings and sons by name. And there is independant civil records of all of
them including several census records, a civil record of marriage, etc.
How do we handle the many cases when two or more people with
the same given name and surname were born in the same town at
the same time. I think it might be essential to have precise birth date
to be able to determine exactly who _his_ parents were, etc.
Of course, just about the _best_ evidence concerning the woman
who married your great-grand-father, would be if some will identified
her as -say- "my natural daughter, Cleopatra Smith ".
And for great-grandfather, a will saying -for instance "the unmarried
children of my dcsd son Nehemiah Smith: Harry, Joe, Mary and Jezebell
etc
This thread: