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From: Ida Skarson McCormick <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] wish list - dy
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2011 15:23:59 -0700
References: <002501cc2de9$f988e530$ec9aaf90$@comcast.net>
In-Reply-To: <002501cc2de9$f988e530$ec9aaf90$@comcast.net>


Holly:

There is more than one reason why dy or d.y. should not be used. What is
the source? The abbreviation d.y. has been used in published family
histories as a shorthand way to "kill off" children when what was
intended was "I have no further information on this person." Many turn
out just to have migrated somewhere else and didn't die young at all.
The use of d.y. has the effect of stopping research on that person by
oneself or others.

If you have such a family tradition, it is better to use a date range
(even 20 years) and a family member's name as the source (Interview,
Conversation, Letter, or E-mail source type). I have one: "He was killed
as a teenager when he was kicked in the head by a horse." He was not
buried in the family plot. It turned out he died a few years later at
the state hospital in another county. He died of epileptic seizures,
most likely due to the brain injury. This was in the late 1800s in Oregon.

Also, d.y. is the abbreviation in Norwegian for "the younger," as when 2
brothers had the same given name and both survived to adulthood. This
was a common practice. For example, if the maternal and paternal
grandfathers were both named Ole, they each had to have a child in the
same sibship named after them. One child wouldn't do for both grandparents.

--Ida Skarson McCormick, , Seattle

On 6/18/2011 12:00 PM, Holly Timm wrote:
> I would like to be able to enter dy (for died young) in the death date and
> have it show as such in the death date column just like a date would. I find
> that frequently we have information that a child died young before any
> possibility of marriage or children but without having even an approximate
> year of death and it would certainly help to distinguish those of similar
> names in the picklist, the childrens or siblings list. Is it possible to
> make 'dy' an acceptable entry?
>

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