From The Top

Submitted by: GFL George

 

Documents are the basis for any good genealogical research project. We are constantly looking at birth, marriage and death records. Pouring through wills, probate records and cemetery lists to name but a few of the common documents we look at all the time to try to get a feel for the life and times of our ancestors. What we need to ask ourselves is just how important is each record and just how accurate.

I think back to before my genealogy days, just after my father died and I was responsible for completing the death certificate. I was not there at his birth or his marriage, I barely knew his father and never met his mother but I was the one that provided that information based on what I knew. My father and I were very close so that information was easy to get. After my blessed mother died, my father married someone that I did not get along with well. The second marriage lasted about 5 years and they separated but never divorced. Since his second wife was still his wife of record, she belonged on the death certificate however I was the one providing the information and of course I wanted my mother’s name on the document. If not for a very observant town clerk, this twisting of the truth would have become public record and I would have successfully eliminated most of the record of the second marriage.

I think of this story every time I look at a document. It makes it very clear to me just how easy it is to create documents with errors. If I were not close to my family I might not have known where and when my father was born. I might have gotten the time and places of his marriages wrong and of course my desire to have my real mothers name tied to my father for eternity may have actually happened. It shows how you should question every document and think about what other factors might be coming into play at the time the document was created.

A Death certificate is an excellent example of a document that is both a primary and secondary document. It is primary for such facts as the time, place and cause of death, because the person creating the form was probably present at the time of death. It is also a secondary document for such things as birth, marriage and even parents. These things were in many cases told to the person who is creating the document and should therefore be looked at with a skeptic eye.

This month we are planning to talk about Documents, what are they and how important are they. This is a topic that every genealogical researcher should think about all the time.

George Ferguson
Genealogy Forum Leader
President, Golden Gates Services, Inc.

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