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Beware Errors in Genealogical Sources

 

Most individuals esteemed as professionals in the genealogical field will agree with the statement about to be made here: fact check a source by looking at another source if you can find them. When you cite one source alone, you may not even know because you didn't conduct thorough research, a genealogical error is being presented. 

For example, if you are looking for an ancestor or relative for yourself or a client, sometimes in a census information may be inaccurately written. You may never know if an entry within the census is wrong even if you don't look for sources to confirm what you find in the first source.

As a second example, in certain genealogical lineages, someone could have accidently recorded the wrong child for a set of parents. I experienced in one occasion, when I was researching a personal ancestor born in the 1700's. In one genealogical list from another genealogist, there is a list of more than one child. But when finding another source, the same parents were recorded to have only one child named "Sarah". I wasn't sure if this was a genealogical mistake, because of the inconsistencies, but these type of inconsistencies in genealogical information require a fair warning. 

Fact check. 

Never rely on one source. The source could contain a mistake. 

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