My recent experience "interviewing" my wife has changed my views on verbal sources. Whilst some things obviously fall into the category of family lore, and are taken with a grain of salt, others, such as dates of certain events, and particularly the occurrence of certain events, can be more reliable than written sources. However, for this to be the case, it is important that the reason someone believes something is obtained and documented. For example, I was amazed that my wife could recite without hesitation the birthdates of a number of her cousins (she has many). Upon cross examination there turned out to be good reasons for this, by association with events in my wife's life that are provable by other means. For example, "I heard that Aunt X had just had baby Y when I was on a trip to stay with my aunt in Madagascar" - and she only went to Madagascar once, when she was 12. Still some room for error, but a lot less than if just a direct memory of a year.
So, with just the assertion "born in year x" -> Surety 1; with the supporting reasons -> Surety 2 or 3. (On my scale, a birth certificate, whilst still liable to some error, rates 4).
The challenge is to cite the evidence so that others give similar credence to it as I do! (I'm about to read Mills' book Evidence! to learn some more).
Cheers, Rob
----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Silverman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2005 11:25 PM
Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Citing questions - Verified Verbal Sources
Hi Rob,
In this case, the source is personal knowledge of J Smith. So, if I found
this source marked verified in your database, it would indicate to me that
J Smith told you that he saw the birth certificate and that you believe that
you correctly entered the data that you heard from J Smith.
Of course I would feel a lot better if I could get J Smith to send me a copy of the certificate.
In the case of verbal sources, marked verified or not, I tend to take them with a grain of salt.
Verbal sources and family lore are an important part of our research, but fall short in our quest to "prove" our facts.
Of course if you followed other recent threads on this list, even official documents can contain errors.
Steve
--- On Thu 01/06, Rob Weiss < [EMAIL PROTECTED] > wrote:
From: Rob Weiss [mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [email protected] Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2005 19:33:37 +1100 Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Citing questions - Verified Verbal Sources
Thanks, Steve.
I like that approach. How would you apply it to a source such as "Birth
Certificate XYZ cited by J Smith". Would you mark this source as verified
only if you had checked that the contents of the birth certificate had been
entered correctly, or just that J Smith's interpretation has been entered
correctly? I would favour the former, as this meets your requirements to
guide a future researcher.
Cheers, Rob
----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Silverman"
To:
Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2005 12:49 AM
Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Citing questions - Verified Verbal Sources
Rob,
I use this flag when I have seen the source and can confirm that the data entered in Legacy accurately reflects what the source claims.
Using this definition, a verified source does not imply that the source is true, only that it has been summarized correctly in the database.
I use this flag so that a future researcher would not have to go back and check the source again. For a verbal source, this of course has no use, because there is no way to go back and verify what was heard.
However, since you transcribed what you heard (and had it validated by the
speaker), and use that as the source, you can "verify" that you summarized
the transcript correctly.
Steve
--- On Tue 01/04, Rob Weiss < [EMAIL PROTECTED] > wrote:
From: Rob Weiss [mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [email protected] Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 11:36:51 +1100 Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Citing questions - Verified Verbal Sources
I'm interested in hearing how others use the "This Source has been Verified" flag (accessible on the Source Detail screen), particularly for verbal sources. I'm trying to establish a consistent way of using this flag for possible future guidance in my research.
[snip]
_______________________________________________ No banners. No pop-ups. No kidding. Make My Way your home on the Web - http://www.myway.com Legacy User Group Etiquette guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp
To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup%40mail.millenniacorp.com/
To unsubscribe please visit:
http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp
Legacy User Group Etiquette guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp
To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup%40mail.millenniacorp.com/
To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp
