Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Not only loss of records but lack of records. When my grandmother was born, they didn't issue birth certs. At most, she was baptized and got a bap. cert, but that wasn't filed anywhere and is lost to time.
I'm really loving Ancestry's PA death Certs -- but where my family was, sometimes they were transferred to Cumberland MD hospital.... and so there is no death cert. And sometimes there's no death cert. I have gggf I can't find one for at all. I've searched both ancestry and PA website... zip. No way he'd be in Ohio...but I digress.
There's one man who is also doing gen. on a segment of our family. He is doing such good work, and his standards are so high, that I am certain his work will qualify as a primary source one day. But I have to say -- this stuff just never ends. It just never ends. I've had knowledge that I take as gospel rocked by finding yet another piece of info.... like finding the second wife no one seemed to talk about and now a fifth living child no one seems to know. This information is an addition to 38 year old DOCUMENTED DAC approved application papers for my Aunt.... who was old enough to actually KNOW the documented individuals.
It is a puzzle... which is why we do this. It's fun to cipher this all out...
There's one man who is also doing gen. on a segment of our family. He is doing such good work, and his standards are so high, that I am certain his work will qualify as a primary source one day.
If you mean primary as in a valuable source you check with first, fair enough. But generally when people say primary source, they mean a source that existed at the time of the event. A birth record is a primary source for the birth event. A death record is a primary source for a death event but a secondary source for the birth event. A person can be a primary source but only if they were alive and present during the event in question, which I'm guessing this person was not for most of the data he's compiling so I think calling him a primary source might be a little misleading.
One thing that might surprise people is what a person puts down on a document as their date of birth is not actually a primary source or even one to be considered absolutely reliable (like what someone puts on their WW I draft registration, etc.). Only a birth record of some kind is considered a primary source that can be counted on to be absolutely reliable, such as a gov't issued birth certificate, baptism record which states the birth date, that sort of thing.
The same is true of marriage dates--find the actual record of the marriage to verify that. I have a story from my own family which highlights the importance of using original records to verify things when doing research.
My grandparents had long celebrated their wedding anniversary on January 5th--and they said they were married in 1945 in Boston. For a long time nobody thought anything of it. Then, about fifteen years ago, a letter was found, dating from the summer of 1945, from my grandfather to my grandmother....its contents clearly indicated that they could not had been married by June, 1945....so, when this was brought up, they admitted they were actually married January 5, 1946---and my aunt, the eldest child was born in October 1 of that year...so, they got pregnant right after they got married, according to them. They were embarrassed by it.
After my grandmother's funeral in 2012 (and her husband died a few years before her) a box was found in her office. Nobody had ever seen it before, so it was opened. Inside, among my old letters and photographs, was a copy of their marriage certificate, dated February 14, 1946. This was verified to be accurate when a copy was obtained from the city hall.
So, its important to verify using original sources. Personally, I like to find multiple copies of old records, when possible.
But the farther back you go in time, often the 'dimmer' the 'image' becomes.
In most places, before the late 19th century/early 20th century, you're going to be relying more on extant church records instead of gov't issued birth/marriage/death records. Many times, copies were not made of old church registers, so if they were lost, all records contained within were too. With gov't issued records, often there are two, three or even four copies or versions of the records, often stored in different places. I like to find each copy when I do research.
But, my standard of proof varies depending on the time and place being considered.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
