Ron, I did not indicate a range beyond pointing out that it is always more than a quarter and may not be accurate to the year. My point was that the Q format is intrinsically not an event date, and using it as such produces errors, as when translated to nFS data. I then derived the best date estimation based on Q format data, which is the month and year of the first month of the quarter.
As an example, my mother's birth was in late December, so appears in the Mar Quarter GRO record for the following year - off by one in years and three in months if simply entered to nFS as the record designation data. Because of the systematic effect of recording lag, it's always most accurate to use the start of the GRO quarter as a date estimation, with qualifier to clearly indicate approximation. For a source, of course the designation by the GRO is correct, but if you are now confused by use of the Q format as a date, consider how a user of nFS data will get on with a potentially erroneous month and year presented as fact. kb ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ron Ferguson" <ronfergy....@tiscali.co.uk> To: LegacyUserGroup@LegacyUsers.com Sent: Monday, April 9, 2012 9:38:22 AM Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] What is the point of Family Search 2? Of course, the only Event which the Q Date refers is that of the Registration of the BMD, which, for births, can be of a larger range than that which you indicate. The most appropriate date for the record is that which is used by convention, and more importantly by the General Records Office to reference the record, is the last month of the quarter, ie. March, June, September, December. Ron Ferguson http://www.fergys.co.uk/ From: britton...@comcast.net Sent: Monday, April 09, 2012 1:55 PM To: LegacyUserGroup@LegacyUsers.com Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] What is the point of Family Search 2? The Q format is not does not give the date of a vital event; it gives the group identification of a record. Properly, it should be used as a source, not a date. Since it gives the time period the event was recorded, the best date approximation is "about the first month of the Q period". All Q periods will include events preceding the Quarter, and in the preceding year for the Mar quarter, and will miss events close to the Quarter end, again resulting in a year error for the Dec Quarter. "abt. month year" is the closest approximation for an estimated date and indicates that it is estimated. kb Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyusers.com/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyusers.com/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
