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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1997-01 > 0852233136


From: Karen Courtenay <>
Subject: LDS Accuracy
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 14:25:36 -0500


> ----------
> From: Medieval Genealogy Discussion
> List[SMTP:] on behalf of Sharla
> Conforti[SMTP:]
> Reply To: Medieval Genealogy Discussion List
> Posted At: Tuesday, December 31, 1996 8:19 AM
> Posted To: soc.genealogy.medieval
> Conversation: DRAKE,CRANDALL,BABCOCK,TANNER,SOULE,WEST
> Subject: Re: DRAKE,CRANDALL,BABCOCK,TANNER,SOULE,WEST
>
> You mention the LDS records. I'd like to know how reliable their
> records are.
> I have my Bingham line charted in LDS records dating back to a John
> Bingham
> being born in 972 in Oxford, England. I haven't had the chance to try
> to
> verify the names and dates. I'd like to know how much I should rely on
> their
> records for accuracy.
>
> Sharla Conforti
>

I would not trust the information in the IGI at all without checking everything.
Much of it was submitted by amateur genealogists with no checking by others.
For example, I found that a particular Mass. Clark family, that of my
great-great-grandparents, was listed with all ten children given as those
of Aaron and Sarah Clark, while I know from my own family records that only
some of the children belonged to both of them - while some were from his
previous marriage and some from hers. Since none of the children happened to
be the same age, anyone just looking at census records could assume that
they were all full siblings, as the submitter apparently did. If s/he had
bothered to check marriage and death records, this mistake would not have
been made.

I don't know how accurate their medieval records are, but I am not impressed
with their 19th-century ones....

Karen Courtenay

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