Another thing to remember is that although the date of death may be correct,
people often lied about their ages. I just finished documenting yesterday
that a woman who said she was born in 1883 was actually born in 1879, making
her ten years older than her second husband, which apparently she didn't
want known. But an 1880 census record showing her as 9 months old in her
parents home proved it definitively. I have another woman married to a
different relative in which the situation is similar. Wrong dates are on
tombstones, in records, etc. and you are indeed fortunate if all dates
agree. I have found conflicts in our family bible records, which you would
assume would be correct! The other thing to remember is that often uncles,
brothers, cousins, etc. all had the same name, and you could be looking at a
different relative and not realizing it from just the index listing. Just
some ideas from my experiences!
----- Original Message -----
From: <sterrell(a)peakonline.com>
To: <INVIGO-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 01, 2000 3:40 PM
Subject: Re: [InVigo] Errors in Obit Dates - and Otherwise
Jay, thanks for the ideas, and thanks for pointing out the clock
problem, my three year granddaughter is a real dandy computer operator,
and i will attribute that to her, and get it corrected shortly..
But so far I have looked at 5or 6 dates that have all had the obit day any
where from a year to 10 years off from what two different sources have,
but all the ages of the desceased have been correct. That is why I am
questioning it.
I think you are right about sending for the obits.
thanks
susan
----- Original Message -----
From: "Plain Jay" <plainj(a)ieee.org>
To: <INVIGO-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Monday, October 01, 2001 3:11 PM
Subject: [InVigo] Errors in Obit Dates - and Otherwise
> Susan,
> That your computer clock is one year off cannot explain the
problem -
> since I doubt you live in a parallel universe one year different than
everyone
> else! However, the setting of your computer clock is a simple example
of
> "human error" which must always be considered in all
genealogy
endeavors.
> Errors for example can come from -
> 1.) incorrectly reading dates - like from a weathered
tombstone
> 2.) transcription errors - computer or typewriter
keying
errors
> 3.) incorrect reporting by others who were working from
"faulty" memory
> 4.) someone manufacturing data to fill in blanks on
forms
> 5.) erroneous knowledge reported as fact
> 6.) an error made by some other genealogist - yes we
make
them too
> 7.) etc. you name it
>
> In the case of the Vigo County obituaries. Here is a way to
clear
up
> the problem. Request copies of the obituaries in question by the date
which is
> listed in the Vigo County Public Library indexes. If the obituary
cannot
be
> found under that date you will be advised and you will know there is an
error
> in an index. When the library staff returns a copy of the obituary
index
to you
> they will write on it the date of the newspaper from which it came. The
date
> on a newspaper is very reliable, although the staff could make an
occassional
> error in reporting it to you. Then make adjustments from there. For
example
> in a newspaper published January 1, 1900, "yesterday? would be December
31, 1899.
> Also remember that these dates are the publication dates, and do not
always
> indicate when a person died, or when the person was buried. And of
course,
> occassionally, the information reported to the newspaper can also have
been in
> error.
> It never ends, but then that's part of the challenge.
> Jay
>