Ronn!Blankenship wrote:
At 09:09 PM Sunday 11/13/2005, Julia Thompson wrote:
Ronn!Blankenship wrote:
At 12:39 PM Sunday 11/13/2005, Robert J. Chassell wrote:
For example, do you know whether the first Secretary
of the Treasury of the United States was born in 1747, 1755, or 1757;
do you know about his birthdate controversy?
No, but I know I have the same problem (although the dates are
roughly a century and a half later) with my father's father's birth
date, in that I have original or copies of three official records
(census, marriage certificate, WWI service papers) which each give a
different year (same month and day) for his birth.
How many census records do you have for him? If you have, say, 3
different census records, and 2 of them agree with either the marriage
certificate or the WWI service papers, the year for which more things
agree is more likely.
If the WWI papers give an earlier year of birth, he may have been
lying to get in.
(Though I'm sure you've thought of all this already....)
And I'm sure you can guess that those are the only three "official"
records I have which contain his birth date. :D
--Ronn! :)
Actually, I was guessing that there would be more than one census record
available -- if he was in WWI, there would be the 1910 one, and unless
he died there, the 1920 one, and the 1930 one is available, as well
(unless he died before that one).
Of course, there is ample record of a certain ancestor of mine in the
1860 census and the 1880 census, but absolutely no trace anywhere in the
1870 census, so there's no guarantee of anything. :)
(I don't think your ancestor had the excuse mine did of not wanting to
have any contact with anything having to do with the feds on account of
not having surrendered in 1865 or anytime after that.... I'm trying now
to remember if he was the one who got shot at Gettysburg. I think he was.)
Julia
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