Jenny M Benson wrote: > Ron Ferguson wrote >> It is most common in users' databases for the owner to have used the >> simple calculation when recording a date which could, therefore be a >> year out. > > I'm always coming across records (places like Ancestry or GRU trees) > where a year of birth is recorded as "1884" or "1908" where I have > "abt 1883" or "abt 1907" in my database. Knowing that the "odds are > in my favour" I always deduct a year from these "calculated from age" > dates and then prefix it with "about." > > When I see these "1884" or "1908" records it just makes me think that > the researcher is not very concerned about accuracy and should not be > taken too seriously.
And me! I use two prefixes: "Abt" for things like censuses etc. where the date variation is likely to be around 12 months(+) and for the BMD indexes "Cir" where the variation is likely to be within 3months. I agree with your comments about the due diligence of the researcher when the qualifying prefixes are never used. Ron Ferguson _____________________________________________________ Create your Website with Legacy, see Tutorials at: http://www.fergys.co.uk Includes the family tree for Alan J Grimshaw http://www.fergys.co.uk/Grimshaw/ For The Fergusons of N.W. England http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/fergys/ ____________________________________________________ Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
