When following your family history, you will come across many source documents. Why should you document your sources? You have seen them for yourself and know what they contained, haven't you? That is the important portion of the research isn't it? But what if you come across contradictory source documents. Which one is correct? How can you compare the two if you don't know where the first one is located? What if you need to have someone in another part of the country or world look at your document source to verify which is correct? Don't you wish you had taken a moment to write down where you found that snippet of information from that microfilm, book, or article you had seen several years ago?
I have more than frustrated myself many times over the years of researching my family history by not taking that small moment to document my findings. I am now in the process of rebuilding my family information based on documented sources and evidence. I went from over 1200 names in my database to starting over about three years ago. I now have over 800 names in my database that I have a source to document how they are related to my family. I have found many that I did not have before, and have had difficulty verifying ones I thought were iron clad relations. I have also found sources that contradict one another, but with the help of first had interviews, have been able to determine what is accurate.
In 1928, my great grandfather RD McCarty (he had initials only, no given name)and his wife, Mary Effie Taylor McCarty had tragedy visit their family. They had a child born to them in February, who died a few days later from pneumonia.
Buried in the Algerita Cemetery in San Saba County, Texas, this child's tombstone reads simply: Infant son of; Mr. & Mrs. R.D.; McCarty; Feb 15-17, 1928. From the Texas Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, 1928 Births, page 1145, we find a listing for this child. The record indicates the child is known as "McCarty, R.D. Inf of, born in county 206,Feb 15,Male, mother: Taylor, Marrie Effie, father: McCarty, R.D. While researching on Ancestry.com, I found within the Texas Death Index 1903-2000, M, page 80, the listing of this child's death. The information listed includes: McCarty, R.D. INF of, San Saba, 2-16-28, 8369 (certificate number). This information concurs with what the family had always believed.
Years later, I acquired a copy of the Actual Death Certificate from San Saba County, Texas. Thinking this would be information to finalize all that we knew of this small child, I found some discrepancies that got me wondering about what we knew. The certificate number, county, parents names, and death date all matched perfectly. I was surprised at the contradictions. The certificate indicated that this baby was a female, born February 14, 1928 (the date had been written over by someone, changing the date to the 14th). The age at death indicated the child lived 36 hours. The thing that really caught my eye about the death certificate was that the informant who provided the information on the death certificate was B H McCarty, and that the certificate was filed May 29, 1929!
The certificate was not filed until 15 months after the baby's death! The informant for the information was not one of the parents of the child. I still have not been able to piece together who B H McCarty is. Perhaps it is R.D.'s sister Bennie, who married Ross Moore in 1906. Perhaps it is a yet unknown relative. Depending on when the information was received, the informant may have mis-spoken the gender, or, forgotten the gender. One of the things that makes the ciphering difficult, is that there are three and possibly four different handwriting styles present on the Certificate of Death. It is easy to see how information can be entered incorrectly with that many people handling the forms.
After analyzing the available information, I truly believe that the child who died was a little boy. While this information creates a puzzle, it does not mislead us in our search of ancestors through time, such as another puzzle I was faced with, that had fewer tangible documentation.
William Meredith Brown (Merida) was born in 1822 to Jacob and Catherine Brown, in Jackson County, Tennessee. William Meredith was blind from an early age. He had a son, John C Brown, who, in turn, had a son, William Meredith Brown (also known as Merida). The younger William Meredith Brown died June, 1911 and was buried in the John Hargis Cemetery in Big Branch Hollow, Jackson County, Tennessee.
William Meredith Brown, the uncle of William Meredith, died in August, 1911. He is buried in the Whitaker Cemetery, about a mile away from the John Hargis Cemetery. His grave is probably marked by a field stone in this tiny cemetery next to the Jaycees Camp in Jackson County, Tennessee. With the same names, nicknames, and their deaths coming within a month of each other, many have confused these two individuals.
Through a few court records and a newspaper obituary, we have been able to untangle these two individuals. Though unintentional, it is easy to see how getting these two switched can cause difficulties in tracing kinships. By having source information, it is easy to return to the original source to verify information. This makes it much easier to find errors and verify ages for births and parentage.
These two examples show the importance of source documentation to verify or disprove information relative to an ancestor. Unfortunately, people will jump to include information to ease their search. Many times, they unwittingly include incorrect information. I have seen my own lineage take three or four different branches that I know not to be correct because of this. So please, take the extra few moments to include your source information and verify that it is correct. As my grandpa used to tell me "If a job is worth doing, do it correctly".
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