Here is what I do... (and yes, I mention every source...) So, with the four census, where I am calculating his birth, for the birth information I would have
Birth Field -> Cal 1825 - with the 4 sources. (I don't use the date range the census was taken, as I assume some rounding, etc anyway for an age in a source. Now we are given Aug 1824 in the 1900 census.... So, I create an Alt. Birth event, put in Aug 1924 with the 1900 census source. As I consider it likely to be more accurate - I tell the program to switch it with the Birth Event... so I now have Birth -> Aug 1824 with the 1900 source Alt. Birth -> Cal 1825 with the 4 other census sources. Now we have the Death Certificate, that says 15 Aug 1824 As this matches, I am likely to put. Now if it didn't match, say it said 15 Aug 1828, I would have to decide which I felt was most likely with the sources. Birth -> 15 Aug 1824 with the Death Certificate sources... Alt. Birth -> Aug 1824 with the 1900 source Alt. Birth -> Cal 1825 with the other 4 census sources. Now, if it was a calculated birth date with the age at death instead of a specific date, then I would have basically the same things, with the Cal before the birth date. Now, I haven't totally been consistant with this I must admit. I have with some of my people combined it all (if consistant!!!) into the Birth field, and had ALL the sources linked to it... and in the source information had what EXACTLY it said.... This works well too.... which is why I haven't been consistant. If I had a source that said the person born on say 31 Jan 1821 for the same person, and I am very sure it is wrong, I will still keep the information, but will change the Alt. Birth to Dispr. Birth (or something like that? for Disproved Birth) and keep the source. This way, If I see some other source with that date, I know where it might have come from, or might know there is someone with same name etc in the area that i have to watch out for confusion etc. By keeping all the sources, and all the information I get from each one, I don't keep checking the same source over and over. If I see someone with different information, I know where they likely got it from, or I have enough information to know why i think it happened the way I think it happened, or I might know to re-evaluate my own information. If I remove sources, how do I know why I decided what I did? On Wed, May 26, 2010 at 1:49 PM, Scott Hall <[email protected]> wrote: > We could continue the example with other records that corroborrate or > conflict, such as obituaries, cemetery indexes, tombstones, etc. All > have varying levels of surety. You want to know that you reviewed > each source, so as not to duplicate your work, but do you want a > catalog of every source you've ever looked at? If not, how do you > balance keeping track of what you've reviewed, having sufficient > sources such that the conclusion can be reasonably supported, and > keeping your data file neat and organized and your reports crisp and > not burdened with excessive redundancy? > > Scott > Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
