An important part of gathering family information is to document your sources. It really matters to record how you know what you know. One reason this important is to demonstrate that your information in reliable. Another is to help tease out where the problem is if your records don't exactly match up with someone else s.
My Grandma Kurtz celebrated her birthday on July 18 every year. Her certified copy of birth record lists her birthday as June 29, 1881. I was told by my grandmother that the reason for the disparity is that babies were delivered in the county by a traveling doctor who came out to the various farms in the area and then later supplied a report to the folks at Vital Records at the end of each quarter. Grandmother suggested that the doctor may have gotten two babies mixed up, not remembering which night he delivered which baby. She said Gertrude's mother clearly knew when her daughter was born and the family information on the birth date should trump whatever the state record might claim.
What's a person to do? I have a copy of the certified record in my family history book with a note telling why I believe it is not accurate.
Because my great grandmother was considered a "local pioneer" and one of the oldest people in her community, there were write ups about her in local papers on her birthday each year. Because those are based on self report, they all list her birthday as being in July.
Is it POSSIBLE she was born in June? I suppose. Does it matter? It did to my grandmother.
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints there are a series of statements that capsulize our core beliefs called "the Articles of Faith". One of those states: "We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly. We also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God." This acknowledges that while the Bible is a sacred record from inspired prophets, in all the many thousands of years of those records being handed down and then translated from one language to another, some errors have crept in along the way.
Just think - there is a BIG difference between celebrate and celibate. It doesn't take a very big mistake to change a lot of meaning.
Likewise, in family records it is easy to transpose numbers or to hit a wrong key on a keyboard. If we rely entirely on Great Aunt Tilly's family history that has been handed down for generations without ever checking sources ourselves, it is possible to perpetuate mistakes.
So check your data as much as it is reasonable to do so and leave a clear trail that proves where your information comes from.
Recording information based on personal memory is fine – you simply
ought to say that is where the information came from. Then, if or when other records come to light
which give a different date or place for some relative’s key life events,
future generations will have a better chance of knowing which information to
trust.
A worthwhile family history activity for those who live in places where
official documents or other written records are common is to periodically so searches
for “official proof” of the family information we already have. A great many records are now available online
which have made this process far easier than in the past.
For those who live in areas of the world where oral tradition is the
only record available it is especially important to get that information
written down, recording who gave the information and the date and place the
record was made. Your future descendants
will thank you for it.
