I put the Source of the 'wrong' info and state why I KNOW it is wrong. This way, when in the future, someone sites that source, my information is 'ready to send', to assist them in making the same analysis. They of course, can make their own conclusion.Rich in LA CA
--- On Wed, 8/17/11, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: From: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: [LegacyUG] "Facts" To: [email protected] Date: Wednesday, August 17, 2011, 11:02 AM I have a question on citing documentary sources that you know to be incorrect, especially when you have a primary source to back up the event. It seems as though census records are particularly prone to error. For example, I have seen varying information on successive census records for an individual concerning such things as date of immigration to the US and citizenship status. Since I may have steamship records to show the actual date of arrival and naturalization records to validate Declaration of Intent and final oath of citizenship dates, I really don't see the reason to cite conflicting information that shows up in the census. If my only source of evidence is census data, I can see citing it, but I don't know if it is "standard practice" to ignore less reliable information if authoritative information on the event exists. And while we are on the subject, I have seen non-relatives documented in the census as a "sister" or "cousin" when I am positive that no relationship exists. In one case, the "sister" appears to be a random border, and the "cousin" was a close family friend from the same town, but not a blood relative. Conversely, I have seen "boarders" who are in fact, cousins (although technically just because someone is listed as a boarder doesn't mean that they aren't related). I can't see adding the "sister" to Legacy, since I know that the only other sister had not yet immigrated, and she had a different name! So my question is, how do other people handle unreliable evidence when reliable evidence exists - do you ignore the unreliable evidence or do you create an alternate conflicting event which is less reliable than a known event? I guess this applies to ages as well - how do you handle ages when there is no birth record, yet a person ages less than 10 years between censuses? Do you treat an earlier census as more reliable (in some cases they seem to be, but this is just a gut feeling) or just document everything? Maybe Geoff could address some of these issues in his upcoming webinar as well. Thanks in advance, Marion Werle 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 Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp 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 Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
