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From: Network Planning <>
Subject: addendum to 20 ways to avoid grief
Date: Tue, 30 May 89 11:40:55 EDT

> on point 18 -- conflicting information. I recommend always keeping both
> points of view written down in any document. I.e. if two different sources
> say Jack Jones was born on May 1, 1799 and June 1, 1799, note both dates,
> the sources, and which you think is more trustworthy.
>
One aspect of citing multiple sources often proves quite informative later,
especially when referencing dates. Where the one date proves to be a
contemporary recording using one calendaring system, and the other a later
"revision" converted to the "new system dates".

I know there is a period in American history in the early 1700s or so
when there are differences in the "year" for persons born between
January and March, depending upon when you took the New Year to begin.
(I have to look up the details all the time because I don't recall them.)
In this case the Month and day will match, but the year will be off.

Another MAJOR reason for keeping multiple source references is the search
for corroborating documentation. Usually years of birth shown on marriage or
death certificates are based upon verbal statements, not the presentation
of an actual birth certificate. My own birth certificate is a classic case
in point. My mother's age is listed as 29 and my father as 30, when in
actually the reverse is true, (my mother was older than my father). This
could have been an assumption on the part of the clerk that "wives are
always younger than husbands" or, more likely, my mother's perpetration
of that "folk wisdom".

William H. Magill Manager, PENNnet Operations Planning
Data Communications and Computing Services (DCCS) University of Pennsylvania
Internet:

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• addendum to 20 ways to avoid grief by Network Planning <>