Family Search.....

[karenc]

Hi, i just wondered if anyone could answer my question. when looking on the family search website for births etc i have come across quite a few which states the birth dates as about a certain year , for example janet mccall born about 1868.

I just wanted to know how do they come up with these about dates and how accurate are they likely to be?

Karen

[DavidWW]

Hi, i just wondered if anyone could answer my question. when looking on the family search website for births etc i have come across quite a few which states the birth dates as about a certain year , for example janet mccall born about 1868.

I just wanted to know how do they come up with these about dates and how accurate are they likely to be?

Karen

Karen

These are most likely to be patron submissions, where an estimate only of the date is possible; as opposed to extracts from records.

David

[karenc]

hi david

the reason i ask is because i have a james bell and janet mccall and a list of their children from family search and according to that james was born about 1764 and janet about 1768, but i have found a census for 1841 for james and janet who i assume are the same as the couple i previously mentioned but going by the census james would be born closer to 1750 and janet would be about 1770 which is close to the family search results.

i now wonder if they are the same couple, but how likely is it that there is two james bells both married to a janet mccall

[DavidWW]

Karen

Are the records for the children extracts or patron submissions, and how do they lead back to dates of births for the parents?

Unlikely, but not impossible that there could be two couples of those names.

Is the same area involved?

David

[joette]

As one who has placed submissions on the IGI & later found more accurate info it is impossible to correct.So you resubmit & so you can end up with multiple subs for the same person.I used to guesstimate the age a lot of times e.g child born 1860 so assume the parents are 21 but later you find they are at the end of a long line of siblings & that in fact the parents were 41.So you can see where a lot of inaccuracies creep in.
I am a lot more cautious now & off course there is a lot more info avaiable that wasn't previously.

[karenc]

thanks david and joette, the dates it had for the children were correct as i have checked these against the OPRs. in answer to the area question the children and parents according to familysearch were born in new cumnock.

the 1841 census i have is for old cumnock, but some of the children have turned up in old cumnock in later census so that was why i thought it was the same people.

Karen