I’ve found information about my relatives in the US Federal Census records and on the Ellis Island website and I know that both are recorded information with verified records, but I’ve just found information on the Latter Day Saints’ website that shows the names of relatives and dates of their passings, but they do not show the information that the Census does and the dates are slightly different on each.
Which do you think would be better to use? The one from the Latter Day Saints’ website or the information off of the Census?
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Latter Day Saints Website Vs. The Us Census?2 comments to Latter Day Saints Website Vs. The Us Census?Leave a Reply |
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In all circumstances you are dealing with the human factor no matter that the records were verified. Census records could have been written incorrectly; ages, I have found, were not always true, either given wrong to the census taker or just recorded wrong who knows, and even Ellis Island records have been translated from written records by humans, and were originally written by humans. I think you need to record both dates, and the source for each and then try to find a third or fourth document that will verify one of those dates. Also remember that you need to check when the census was taken and the dates of birth. The census can seem to be off by a year if the birthday falls after the census was taken, so you need to take that information into account as well.
Good luck with your search!
Genzoli
founder California Genealogy Clubhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/california…
Anyone doing research for more than a few months, all of a sudden, realizes-
conflicting records are standard in research. You have to expect it. Once you know this, you go to the next level, meaning, you never rely on one record, but collect all the ones you can, and compare as to which is likely to be valid.
LDS site has several types of “records”. Some are extracts from church registers, primarily in England. That is pretty close to original. Family files are submitted by a researcher, and you HAVE TO verify what the source is. I used to volunteer at an LDS library, and am well aware that many submissions were done in a hurry and not good work. It is also true that the census has errors.
Sample comparison… family file says the person was born in 1873. The census has the child listed in 1870 as 1 yr old. Here it is clear that the child WAS BORN prior to 1870, or they would not be included.
Bottom line is that ALL RECORDS can be an error. The closer you are to the original source, the better you are. And if you have several original sources, you evaluate the quality. Most of the time, errors can be real clear.