Three slightly different dates of birth for an ancestor is not the end of the world as long as the dates are consistent. One of my relatives born in the early 19th century has three different dates of birth from three different records. The dates are only two years apart. The place of her birth is consistent as are other details about her life. While I would like to know which record is “right,” it’s not the end of the world since the other details in her life (her name, her place of birth, her parents’ names, her husband’s name, and her children’s names) are all consistent.
If there were three women born in her village with the exact same name within two years, then I would have a problem.
6 Responses
I believe you will find if a person was going into the CAR, DAR and/or SAR an accurate DOB would be required. Also what were the 3 records? That might establish which record would be considered the most apt to be correct. Lineage organizations for the most part require accurate information.
I understand that certain lineage organizations require accurate DOB. However sometimes that simply is not possible given the time period and the location and sometimes requiring a precise date of birth is unreasonable–although frequently a fairly narrow range can be established. In my case the baptismal record is fairly clear and it’s the record that I believe is accurate–or as accurate as I can get. The dates of birth from the death entry in the church and the date of birth on the tombstone from 1877 are different from each other and from the church record of her birth.
Yes, and in that case, one would submit the baptismal record and that date to a lineage organization, as that is the record made closest to the event, and therefore has the greatest likelihood of being most correct.
Is it possible there were other children born and died and and they were named the same? I have seen that with two people involved – the first one died and the second given her name.Three is a possibility?
In this case that’s not what happened. But as you point out sometimes that is the case.
I was amazed at the inaccuracies on my great grandmothers Death Certificate; until I looked down to see who had given the information, her son-in-law. Obviously he was giving them the ‘facts’, as best as he could recall and without records. (I couldn’t give you my mother-in-law’s date and place of birth off the top of my head) His mis-information then became official records in the State of Texas. This was in the 1960’s, how much harder it must have been to keep track centuries ago.