Sherry, I suspect this post will probably lead to a comment about taking my own advice! However, in justification I would say that I try and give best advice rather than something which may lead to confusing others. Firstly, may I point out that my comments on the GRO BMD records apply to England and Wales and not the UK.
OK, as I have previously said the GRO Indexes record the quarter in which a BMD was registered. With D and M one can be reasonably certain that the quarter in which the index is recorded is likely to be reasonable accurate because (a) one is not married unless it is registered and (b) a burial/cremation cannot take place without a certificate. Note in the case of (b) this may be a Coroner's Interim Certificate and the GRO Certificate may not be issued until much (months) later. In the case of a lack of other evidence as to the date of (say) a birth of Jane Bloggs then I will use the GRO Index, and when so doing I will use "cir", so (as I do not use Q dates) the date for the 2nd quarter of 1898 will be "cir June 1898". The place of birth I will either leave blank or add. say, "Liverpool Registration District, ....", and in the notes (after the place name) add the full GRO ref. "Jun 1898, Liverpool; Vol 8 Page 276". Now, in the 1901 census I find Jane Bloggs aged 2yrs born Liverpool, at which point I will change the date of birth to "abt 1898" and the place to "Liverpool...". Worthy of Note here is the fact that 75% of the census indexes are wrong - including Ancestry and Findmypast. To get their indexes they deduct the census age from the year to give their "birth year", so in the case which I have used this would give a birth year of "1899" (1901-2). With the exception of 1841 all our censuses are held during the last weekend in March or the first weekend in April, so the calculated date will be wrong in 75% of the cases. My system is very similar to that used by Jenny except by using "cir" for a limited range of dates say, less than 6 mths and "abt" for greater than that, I can see more easily which of the dates are likely to be from a BMD Index and which from a census (or perhaps elsewhere). For most of over here the use of only the BMD Indexes is very common, with the exception of direct line ancestors, the main reason being cost, which would be enormous for a file of several thousand people. I hope that helps. Ron Ferguson http://www.fergys.co.uk/ -----Original Message----- From: Sherry/Support Sent: Monday, April 09, 2012 5:39 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] What is the point of Family Search 2? Ron, your comments are very interesting (and I love the comment about probablity theory <g>) Since you're in the UK and probably most of your research is there, your comments on this are most valuable, as are other comments you've made about UK research. Ok - down to my question - where do you enter the Q dates in Legacy? Do you enter them in lieu of the actual BMD as a reference for future research or do you lave the BMD blank and enter the Q date as part of the Source Detail? In my limited UK research, I haven't run across UK dates yet, but I suspect I might one of these days! I'm fortunate to have actual dates from immigration papers, tombstones and church records. Sincerely, Sherry Technical Support Legacy Family Tree On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 9:16 AM, Ron Ferguson <[email protected]> wrote: > With respect I am far from confused about Q dates, I have been using the > GRO > indexes for far longer than I care to think, and much longer than the Q > dates have existed. Indeed, I remember them being introduced into Legacy. > I > did not like them then, and still don’t! > > With regard to the actual date of registration, *which is what a Q Date > allocates to a specific quarter*, your calculation is invalid and in my > view > adds nothing to the accuracy of the useless exercise of trying to allocate > a > date to a BMD - for example one has 8 weeks to register a DOB, and before > 1875 it was not even compulsory. BTW. I am qualified in probability > theory. > At no stage in its compilation does the GRO index include any indication > whatsoever of the actual date of the BMD. Whilst you mother's birth > (December) appeared in the March returns, all this says is that instead of > registering the birth there and then, as could have been done, they waited > until the following year. > > At best, as you originally, and correctly, indicated one can only say that > a > BMD probably happened at about the time of registration , but not later > than > the last month, and in my view any further attempt to refine the date is > invalid. I am sticking to my previous comment. > > Ron Ferguson > http://www.fergys.co.uk/ 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
