I have 3 birthdates, one from my M-I-L’s notes, one from notes from another family member and one from Find-a-Grave. What is the best way to record the birthdate? Without other documentation, I’m inclined to use the one from Find-a-Grave, and just note the other two to acknowledge their work.
I’m using Gramps version AIO 64-5.1.5.5 on Windows 10.
I’d record three birth events with citations. The citation record allows to rate the confidence level. In case you have no decisive evidence in favour of one one them, I’d mark all “Low”, meaning investigation is needed.
Unlike @pgerlier I would only put one birth event and add a note with the conflicting information. I only add citations to an event that proves that information. An event with no citation is only a clue.
As a starting point I would use the date from Findagrave especially if there is photo of the grave marker with a date, even if it is only a year. You do not mention how far apart the dates are from your sources. Which family member was closest (familiarly) to the individual? It all plays into your decision.
You can also enter a date “between <date1> and <date2>” and narrow it down as more information becomes available.
A few other considerations, if you choose to use multiple Birth events:
You can order them however you like (not necessarily by date), but keep in mind that the first one in the list will be the one that Gramps uses to determine the person’s birth date.
If you don’t want the other events exported to GEDCOM, web sites, etc. then you can mark them as private.
Thanks for the suggestions. This isn’t the only time it has happened, just the latest. DaveSch, the 3 dates are 9/19/1892, 10/6/1896, 10/16/1896. I don’t know where M-I-L or the other family member got their information.
The 6 may be a typo for 16.
Just out of curiosity, what does “M-I-L” stand for?
That’s “mother-in-law”
Yes, cropping off a leading ‘1’ is a common cut’n’paste error.
And I could see the 9/19/1892 as a possible OCR error … either from a low res image or bad software. Or a human OCR error due to an eroded gravestone.
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