On Mon, 5 Apr 2021 at 11:19:52, john <***@s145802280.onlinehome.fr>
wrote (my responses usually follow points raised):
[]
Post by johnI would recommend that, rather than just adding the content of the tree
to your data, you check the data first. Best to just use public trees
to aid your research. Public trees are often riddled with errors and
the trees are blindly copied and the errors replicated elsewhere. And
I heartily agree - to the extent that if I find ten trees that say one
thing and one that says something different, I give that one at least as
much weight (more if there's evidence its compiler is conscientious!).
Post by johnthen many of those tree owners are unwilling to update their trees when
given the correct information as it would be too much effort.
Indeed.
(Having said that - I keep my master data here on this computer [and
backups of course], and upload a GeDCom to Ancestry and/or familysearch
occasionally, which I don't tend to update [until next time I upload],
but at least if someone tells me of an error, I do reply to them.)
Post by johnExact date searching can be a problem. Christenings may be the only
record of a birth and they can take place many years later (I think the
biggest gap I have is nine years!)
Adult baptisms are known, though I haven't found any in my researches,
but I've certainly found some years' delay - in at least two cases, my
ancestors went for a "job lot", having several of theirs dunked on the
same day.
_Sometimes_ you find the vicar has recorded the birth date as well as
the baptism one - even when they're using the printed forms, a
surprising number wrote it in the left margin.
A lot of trees, though, record the baptism date as the birth date )-:.
Post by johnSearching for UK is not really a good idea. Just about all databases
use the individual countries although some search engines will now
expand the search. I'm surprised you searched for Fritenden rather
than Frittenden, especially as you know the area, as that could limit
your searches in some databases.
It's well worth learning how the various sites accept wildcards. I'd try
"Frit*den" - or even Frit*n or Frit* - for this case. (Not all sites
accept wildcards, or not in all fields; a lot of Ancestry forms, for
example, will accept them for names but not places.) There are other
wrinkles - I've found cases where at least two non-wild characters are
required before the wild one. (And the results didn't make that clear at
all - they might even say "no hits".)
Post by johnTowns near a county border could have their BMD recorded in the
registration district in a neighbouring county. Many of the earlier
census/parish records were recorded by individuals who wrote down what
they heard. With strong local accents and without local area knowledge
that could easily result in mistakes.
FindMyPast has a distance slider in miles - though, infuriatingly, not
on all their search forms; in fact I think only their country-wide ones,
not the specific counties' records!
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Post by johnhandwriting. I remember some of the Ancestry census transcriptions had
problems with children born within a year before the census who
recorded as x months old. Unfortunately their age was often recorded as
x years old.
Allegedly that has also plagued some of the recent GRO reindexing of
their index.
Post by johnThe free Lost Cousins https://www.lostcousins.com newsletter often has
useful Masterclasses on genealogy searching techniques; a search for
site:www.lostcousins.com masterclass
will give you links to them.
Yes, agreed. Peter is not modest, and somewhat forthright, but he's very
good!
Post by johnThis is a recent one on MASTERCLASS: Tracking down pre-1837 baptisms
and marriages
https://www.lostcousins.com/newsletters2/endmar21news.htm#Masterclass
That section (you have to scroll down quite a bit from the heading, as
usual) has his latest list of which of the two companies (Ancestry and
FindMyPast) has what counties' records.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)***@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf
"That was a great speech. Every thinking American will vote for you."
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