Think about the record you are using and the pieces of information it contains. Are there facts that don’t really need to be accurate? Yesterday’s tip mentioned a marriage date in a divorce record. Think about it for a minute. In most divorce cases, is it material if the date of marriage is slightly incorrect? Probably not. The key fact is that the couple is married. Uusally a date being sightly off is not going to impact the divorce case in any significant way. Always keep the intent of the document in mind when analyzing the information is contains. It doesn’t mean things have to be wrong, but there may be certain facts that don’t have to be 100% precise. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of […]
A 1921 divorce case I’m looking at for an upcoming issue of Casefile Clues indicates several times that the couple was married in 1908. Just because this year is repeated in several places does not make it more likely to be correct. Frequency does not mean accuracy. Errors can easily be repeated and a divorce record ten years after the marriage is not a primary source. Just because you see something repeated numerous places does not mean it’s right. That’s true even if legal documents are being used. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!
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