It can be easy to get bogged down in thinking you have a location of a genealogical event correct or that it “couldn’t have happened anywhere else” or it “couldn’t have happened there.” Thinking such thoughts can cause the researcher to make incorrect interpretations, overlook materials that could provide information, etc.

Is it possible that the place of birth you have for an ancestor could be wrong? Look at the actual source of that information and ask yourself exactly how reliable is that type of record and what is the probability that the likely informant on the record actually had good knowledge of the information?

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  1. Look at a map. My Yorkshire family was born in various places which turned out to be the exact same place because the place was identified as Someplace near Somewhere Bigger. All the little villages 1 or 2 miles from each other were almost always identified as Town near Another Town. If the Town happened to be near several small towns it could be identified as various places depending on who was recording the occasion.

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