The grandson recently asked me if it was raining outside. When I answered “no,” he immediately said it was sunny. It wasn’t, but in his mind the two things were opposites.

The opposite of “it is raining” is “it is not raining.” I was not going to have that discussion with him as it was not age appropriate. It was better to simply state the specific truth at the time: it was cloudy.

Some times genealogists fail to understand that there are other possible ways to interpret a record, family dynamic, or situation than the one or two ways that may initially enter our mind. The simplest example is that someone who is not listed in a US census record is not necessarily dead. There are other options: moved for a short time, overlooked, and name completely butchered by census taker, are just some ways this could have happened.

If it is not raining, it could be sunny. It’s good for a child to know that if it’s not raining that it could be sunny. Grown genealogists need to remember that there are other options as well.

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