Genealogy Chat

Could I plead with people to add an area of birth when they fill in their tree, even if it is only a rough idea. I spend ages contacting people who have left that blank, but you have to follow it up as the name and year fit, and you just never know!!

I agree with you, Karen. Even a county or country would be helpful. I would have thought that if people have enough information about a person to add them confidently to their tree, then they must have at least some idea of where they were born.

yes Angela, I dont understand why people dont put it in, it would help them find contacts too, think sometimes people get lazy and cant be bothered filling in all the info!!

Karen, I try to put place of birth on there but when you have (very) pre 1837 wives that you've found on IGI you really can't know without a lot of further research - I usually put 'uk' for 'unknown, probably united kingdom'. Census can help but if they're not on them (died before 1851 - the first census with place of birth other than just in or out of county) there's not a lot you can do about it. I'll wait to be corrected on this one..... (any tips to help on this anyone???) Sarah :-)

Hi Sarah, You right sometimes there is little you can do, but it is the people who have relatives born after 1837 I have the issue with, they must at least have a county for them, or at the very least say South England, Midlands, or North England etc karen

I filled in the birth place of my grand mother, believing it to be shropshire. As she was married there, had six children, and stayed there till she died. When the death cert. came, I found out she was born Tewkesbury, Gloucester. I was left thinking, did that throw someone off the scent...if they knew where she was born, but I had put Shropshire. Jo

Karen, I would treat as suspect any item on a tree that does not have full date. Year only seems to suggest that the certificate has not been seen and therefore place where the event occurred is not detailed and possibly reason that it is not given.

Hi Jo, I wouldn't worry about putting people off the scent. I would have got in touch with you as those regions are not all that far apart. I got in touch with someone who had put surrey, and I had london down, but as some areas or Surrey were classed as london back then I got in touch and we had a match!! As long as you have a general area it is better than leaving it blank. karen

Hi Joe, No I dont mean the actual tree, but when you run a search looking for possible matches, sometimes not only the place is blank but the year as well! Karen

Hi Karen, I see what you mean, would make things easier. Jo

Why should an item be suspect simply because it does not have a full birth date? Pre 1837 you are pretty unlikely to get a birth date, but as GR insists on a birth, as opposed to a baptism, date then a year, which I usually put as the year of the baptism unless I know otherwise, is the best that can be done. Post 1837 if I have the baptism details, particularly if it's a distant relative, or the spouse of a distant relative then I see no necessity to fork out £7 for a birth certificate. Once again though GR's inadequate program does not show a baptism date on searches, just the birth. But to try to be as helpful as poss I do add a birth year to my genealogy program so that something shows up in GR

Hi David, Get your point pre 1837, but some people dont even put in a year sometimes, it is very frustrating, especially when the place is missing as well! I think the person who commented about the year being suspect meant post 1837 when if you have obtained the certificate you ccan back up the year with an actual date. also sometimes a birth certificate is essential as it gives a mothers maiden name. i dont think a baptismal record does this does it? as usually the parents are married .

Lots of people put in precise date and place of BAPTISM. If we are very lucky, we may know date and place of birth. Often we don't. Like a lot of other people, my tree is uploaded from a gedcom. I have no intention of cluttering my offsite tree with speculative additions and life is really too short to amend the GR tree. The fault lies fair and square with GR. It would be quite simple to default to baptism details if birth fields are empty: other software does this. Unfortunately, this site was designed by people who didn't really understand family history. If you haven't completed the birth fields, then no details appear by the names. Criticisms, please, to GR and not us. Though they have never responded in the past, so I can't imagine they will do so now.

Problem with only putting in baptism date for events after Jul 1837 is that this may not give a good indicator as to date of actual birth. As another person mentioned on another thread to which I added - a baptism can take place at any time from date of birth and though many babies were baptised within days of birth there are many cases where it did not happen until the child was 6,7,8, or other, even prior to marriage in order to appease the vicar ! and I found a case in London and one in Angelsey where the entire family was baptised en masse - probably to cut down on the cost. The ONLY verification of a birth is the certificate from Jul 1837 and if a baptism certificate is found or proven from the local records then, of course, this may be added to the information on the tree. Whenever possible I like to verify all events and those up to Jul 1837 probably means a trip to the archives - and as a Londoner this often means journeys - and, whether I have searched for my own or others, I have made trips as far as Cumbria or Cornwall. Sorry, but if the tree is to be done seriously I see no other way.

On my home tree, if I don't know the place of birth, but only the place and date of baptism, then that's all I record. I have quite a few relations baptised as much as 200 miles from their birth place!! Some are only a few miles away, but even so.......Wrong info is just as misleading as no info! Also, GR has corrupted my tree and so one in ten people on my tree on here have no date/year of birth, though they are correctly recorded at home. I have corrected some of these, but it's a long job as I have a fairly big tree. I don't see why we should find entries with no exact date suspect? If I find census record, baptism record and GRO ref for a person, why should I get their birth cert? I might get the cert for one of the children, to confirm the mother's maiden name, but certainly have never bought all the certs for all the children.....I would have to be a millionaire! Merry

My apologies for my earlier reply - not very well worded. On one of these boards I have seen people complaining that so-called 'hot matches' found by others ended too often in exchanging visibility of their trees - and information being digested by one side due to complete lack of knowledge whilst the other party gains blank dates, blank places and even names that are not always correct. As for GR trees - mine was completely corrupted when I joined and I have not attempted to try again. If anyone wants to see my tree it is available on Tribalpages and that is where I direct people if I see a 'hot match' - and thats like looking for a needle in a haystack.