tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26204193.post1161643206963166999..comments2024-03-26T11:22:41.940-07:00Comments on Genea-Musings: What's "Bad" About Genealogy Software?Randy Seaverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17477703429102065294noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26204193.post-47774491838921321912011-11-22T19:03:33.039-08:002011-11-22T19:03:33.039-08:00See my Reply to Randy:
http://www.beholdgenealogy...See my Reply to Randy: <br />http://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=877Louis Kesslerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11704667321407909489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26204193.post-40966198139515255052011-11-22T10:06:16.816-08:002011-11-22T10:06:16.816-08:00Thank you, Randy, for this exploration.
I do thin...Thank you, Randy, for this exploration.<br /><br />I do think that Louis Kessler's #2 and #6 are closely linked. What you say about putting your proof argument in research notes, under #6, is key to a weakness in the software. Computers do not have brains, but I think there should be a better way to correlate specific pieces of the picture with specific evidence. This also relates to the distinction (and relationship) between "source" and "evidence," which the mechanics of source-citation does not address.<br /><br />When I first started seriously investigating one maternal line, I had one ancestral name. Going to the Courthouses, I found a birth record for him and his marriage record and death record plus his parents' 1846 marriage record. I thus had evidence of his parents' identities, with rough estimates about their dates of birth, which were prior to birth records' creation. Going back home, I searched in vain for the parental nuclear family in US Census enumerations. The father was not enumerated for 1850, and was enumerated "probably" (the only person by the same first name in the vicinity) with a host of siblings only for 1860 in his parents' household - his wife and children not listed (and they were not enumerated elsewhere for 1860).<br /><br />Back in the Courthouse, I found an estate record for the parent's father which detailed the fatherless children's identities in partition of land, including my original known-ancestor. There was no death record for the landed grandfather or for his son. The grandfather's partitioned land was recorded as a conveyance by a possible father (known ancestor's GGF). The name of the GGF was a very common one in the area, as noted in land records. There was an 1864 death record for one, an 1841 will and estate record for another, an 1820-probated will and associated land record for a third.<br /><br />These individuals were thus represented by ~records~, with terminal dates represented and some more or less family lists for those leaving wills.<br /><br />Very detailed study of the land records, the land tax lists which correlated land and owners and the County personalty tax records allowed gradually assigning particular records to particular same-named individuals. After discovery of a Court record indicating that the earliest testator had a land interest in a different State I was able to find more records filling in distinctions: that this same man's son was the one who died in 1864 and the 1841 testator was his son-in-law.<br /><br />Where we don't already have known biographies, this collation of evidence from records is needed. The genealogy programs don't help much with this process.<br /><br />Oh, and my originally known ancestor's father? He died while in Civil War service, an item not mentioned in Courthouse records at all, except hinted at in fiduciary accounts of the Guardian for his children who received stipends until marriage or reaching age 16.Geoloverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12050268303916428230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26204193.post-13416294419732407192011-11-21T17:40:22.132-08:002011-11-21T17:40:22.132-08:00Randy:
You've known about Behold for years. H...Randy:<br /><br />You've known about Behold for years. How come you've not tried it yet?<br /><br />LouisLouis Kesslerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11704667321407909489noreply@blogger.com