When I got married, one of the questions on the license was mother’s maiden name. I knew I was going to have to spell it, after all, I wasn’t getting married in the small town where I grew up. I had to spell it three times before he understood–and it was only five letters–Ufkes. Chances are your ancestor was not asked to spell the information he provided on a record. And if you think he did spell it to the clerk, how can you really be certain? After all, you weren’t there when the clerk ask great-great-grandfather for the information on his marriage. And if you were there—there were a lot of questions that I bet you wish you asked 😉 ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip […]
Did Grandma give the “wrong” date or place of birth for herself? Did she possibly do it because she actually thought that is where or when she was born? Keep in mind that on many records where our ancestors provided information on themselves that they were not actually asked for proof. The clerk just wrote down what they gave. My own Grandma, who would have been 99 today, always gave the same place as her place of birth. Problem is, her birth certificate and other contemporary records give a different location. Grandma just had a misconception about where she was born. Sometimes errors are actually mistakes, not intentional lies. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
We are not talking about the high school prom. If you have a date of birth, death, or marriage for an ancestor, you had to get it from somewhere. Sources should be cited. If the date is an approximation from an age at death, state so. If birth date is an approximation based on the marriage date, indicate that. Just don’t drop dates in willy-nilly without a source. And if you don’t know where you got your prom date, well that’s another story entirely. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
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