Witnesses and informants frequently can’t remember specific dates of events. It’s possible that they:
- never knew them in the first place;
- are lying for one reason or another;
- honestly cannot remember.
It can be difficult sometimes to tell which and it’s best to avoid rushing to judgement. Use any dates in the document itself to establish some broad time frame for when the event could have taken place. Be certain to cite the source and include the name of the known or probable informant. The information can’t be analyzed if you don’t know who gave the information and the circumstances under which it was given.
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One response
I was researching my maternal third great grandmother. The wedding certificate of one of her sons said that the mother’s name was Margaret. No maiden name. And yet the death certificate signed for that son’s daughter decades later indicated that her name was Dorothy Welsh. I should rely on that official document by his own daughter, right? Well, not so much.
After a lot of additional research, I discovered some land feeds in my ancestors names, and they all mentioned the name, Margaret. And finally, I was able to get handwritten records from his church showing that Margaret died in childbirth at the age of 37. And it listed the name of the children which correspond with those I have in my tree. I then discovered ism records from church for several public children. Also showing the name Margaret.
So what’s up with that later official record? I investigated the person and discovered there was a woman by that name that died a little after my male ancestor died. And she was a widow. Perhaps the local record keeper simply put one and one together and got three. Further confirmation is there are no other records of any kind for this Dorothy person in the vicinity.