If you have ever found conflicting genealogical information, this quick post is for you. After yesterday's Research Guidance webinar, I received this excellent question from a viewer:
Geoff, I noticed in one of your examples today, you had two events (for an individual) called “Disproven Birth” – is that new in v8 or an event you added yourself? I like it a lot! Excellent way to keep track of that sort of research result.
Just to check that I understand what I learned today, when you are doing research guidance step 1 – review timeline, you would UN-check these two events, right? Because you don’t really want to look for anything having to do with those dates or places, right?
Thanks again for a great webinar!
Any time I find conflicting information, such as a birth date or place that conflicts with what I already know about an ancestor, I create an "Alt. Birth" event and add its citation. If I am able to disprove the Alt. Birth event, I edit it and change its name to "Disproven Birth". Then in its notes, I type my explanation of why I have disproved it. I believe the example below is the one from the webinar:
For a more in depth discussion, read How To Record Conflicting Information.
I loved the second part of your question, and is one that I have never been asked before. But you are exactly right. Here's why….
In Legacy's Research Guidance, the "Review Timeline" tab displays all of the ancestor's events. These events, with their dates and places, are what Legacy analyzes to create the list of Suggested Sources. In the example below, I have turned off the checkmarks next to the three Disproven Birth events. Since I have disproven the fact that this ancestor was born in Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Vermont, I certainly would not want Research Guidance suggesting sources for these areas.
Hope this helps! Life is short, do genealogy first!
Ahh, I always use the Alt Birth info, but never thought about “conflicting Info” Great Idea. Thanks.