Posts in March 8, 2016

Never include in a database that which you do not know. If the only record you have on an ancestor is a newspaper death notice which says: Mrs. Anton Flagstone died on the 5th of August [1890] then you don’t have her first name. You don’t have her maiden name. The newspaper may not even provide a location of death or burial. There is one thing that you do know. You know that the wife of Anton Flagstone died on 5 August 1890. Don’t enter in her last name as “unknown,” “[—–],” or “who knows?” Leave it blank. You do not know it. Do the same thing for her first name. Do not enter her first name as “Mrs,” “Mrs. Anton,” or anything similar. It is fine to […]