A relative was born in 1910 in Oklahoma. While she had no birth certificate, her parents are enumerated in the 1910 census as a young couple a few months before her birth. The family can be found in every decennial census record–where her place of birth is listed as Oklahoma. Everything is consistent, except for her 1980s death certificate in California which indicated she was born in Ohio. Of course the document is transcribed exactly as it is written and correcting it is out of the question–it is impractical, not material to her death, and likely to be met with derision from the records office. The bigger question for me is “how?” How did the place of birth get listed so incorrectly? Death certificates for individuals who died […]
Online “trees” can easily contain an error no matter how conscientious the compiler is. The number of errors can be significantly higher if the compiler is more interested in how many names they obtain or how fast they can compile information instead of how accurate it is. Those errors can be frustrating to someone who finds them–particularly if they involve individuals the finder of the error knew personally. It can be maddening to see that someone has your grandparent with an incorrect spouse, a wrong place of birth, or a parentage that is completely erroneous. These errors can proliferate wildly if other individuals simply copy them into their tree. The first thing a person should do is make certain that their information is correct. Sometimes this a quick […]
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