whether it be dates or places (or anything else). But it seems to me to be
VERY unwise to publish - on the Internet or elsewhere - data which contains
guesses, unless you can clearly identify them as guesses. Even so, someone
inevitably will ignore the fact that they're guesses and treat them as fact.
That's why there's so much garbage genealogy on the Internet.
It also can be useful to know whether the guess is yours or someone else's -
i.e., a date published as circa 1500 in some reliable source.
You say that "My data structure and validation process are such that I must
always have a date" and " I won't change my validation process". I'm not
sure I fully understand what is meant here. Does every person, or every
event, require a date, or just some cases?
Guesses in genealogy can be quite dangerous - especially when they're
mis-used by others, and atrributed to YOU!!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Denis Beauregard" <no@nospam.com.invalid>
To: <GEN-MEDIEVAL-L@rootsweb.com>
Sent: Friday, August 26, 2005 7:42 PM
Subject: What to do with unknown places ?
I have updated my database available at this URL:
http://www.francogene.com/quebec-genealogy/998/
One improvement is a list by places to help foreign
genealogists to find new links overseas. But when I added
this series of pages, I was wondering about how to process
data when I have no place.
This is usually the case for medieval genealogy. Not only
most sources will not give any evidence for the marriage
(except in 1400-1500, some marriage contracts), but there is
often no date and no place.
My data structure and validation process are such that I must
always have a date. Often, it is a guess. For example, I may
have 5 generations with some references to an event (in 1395,
X was at that battle, in 1512, Y is on a chart with his son,
etc.) that can be unrelated to the wedding time (i.e. it can
occur before or after the marriage by which someone had as
an issue the next generation in that line), and then 3 more
generations with no date at all.
Putting a date is useful for validation. This means my dates
are more accurate when there is something else later, i.e.
one marriage about 1500, then many generations with no accurate
date, and another marriage about 1200. So, it is obvious, it
will happen that those dates can be somewhat random. But I had
no choice (I won't change my validation process).
Places are another issue quite different. Since most of my
data is about old French families, I can presume all marriages
occured in France. This would be likely true for any family
far from today's border.
On one hand, this is not very accurate. In having this data on
the web, I would like to attract local searchers who may have
much more data on those families and eventually find some more
royal lines. So, I should be as closer as possible from the
local place, i.e. the departement where the marriage likely
occured. May I presume in every cases that the marriage
occured at the castle or in the principal land of someone ?
On the other hand, since it is always a guess when I have no
accurate date, isn't it useful to try to be very accurate when
this is just not possible ?
Denis
--
0 Denis Beauregard - Les Français d'Amérique
/\/ http://www.francogene.com/genealogie-quebec/
|\ French in North America before 1711
/ | http://www.francogene.com/quebec-genealogy/
oo oo Mon association de généalogie: http://www.sgcf.com