Posts in December 17, 2024

Sooner or later it is necessary to estimate a date of a genealogical event. Often this is to help us sort out individuals with the same name, determining when a person is too old to be having children, determining that a person is likely too young to be a certain person’s parent, etc. But when you estimate a date of an event–say “born about 1870,” have a source or a reason for that estimated date. Margaret Smith was born by 1850 because it is assumed she was twenty-one when she married in 1871–then use the marriage record as the source of the age. Thomas Jones was dead by 1880 because his wife is listed as a widow in the 1880 census–then use that census enumeration as the source […]