Evidence Analysis Issues

Hi Elizabeth,

I've never been quite sure how to address conflicting birthdates in original sources that contain primary information, specifically, the great number of WW1 and WW2 draft cards that do not contain matching birthdates. I am aware of the reasons why someone may purposely change the date, but the numbers of men I have seems very large. I have many more that do not match than those that do. These dates are sometimes different then the various census records for that person.

All of my Irish immigrants came to Savannah Georgia in the mid 1850's.  They seemed to be very active in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist Church in Savannah and I have been able to obtain baptism and death information from the Diocese of Savannah.  When they send me information, such as baptismal information, it is written on a form.  It is not the copy of the actual register where the entry was entered.

I am using a 1830 Probate record from Tyrrell County N.C. for a client report. It is a photocopy of the packet from Raleigh Archives. It contains several deeds. They are handwritten copies from deed books I believe. The handwritng, including signatures and marks, are of the same hand on all copies. The deeds were made(dated and filed) several years apart. I believe they may have been copied for use during probate. Should they be treated as original documents since they are within the packet or should they be analyized as derivatives, which they are in reality.

I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the differences between sources, information, and evidence. It seems to me that evidence and information are the same.  If a source gives me information for whatever I'm researching, that’s evidence. If I'm searching colonial correspondence from AC at the Archives Nationales and I found a reference to the colonial official I'm studying, that's information/evidence I can use to build his biography. What's the difference?

My Genealogy Question Is:

Did James A Wake serve in the Civil War?

Here is a link to an Ancestry.com Image of an 1863 Congressonal Registration Record:

How does one interpret records that have been "crossed out"? For example, I found in county court minutes a notation referencing a that "commissioners were appointed to lay off a year's support for Elizabeth Barnesm widow of J.L. Barnes" on 3 November 1857. The entry was crossed out. The next relevant entry wa son 5 January 1858 when a "petition for dower" was made by Elizabeth Barnes, widow of John L. Barnes.

I am having issue regarding two records which cannot be both true. Both are in original church record books, microfilmed in Local Historical Archives of my birth town.

The first one is from a baptismal record, which I cite as: St. Nikola's Church (Jezevica, Cacak): "Baptism Record Book 1864-1875," p. 142, no. 6, Delic Drinka Ljubomir baptism (1875), microfilm 10, frame 00154; Historical Archives, Cacak. 

I read through Quick Lesson 13 about evidence analysis, especially the case of Thomas Woodson, who some say was a son of Sally Hemings.  I agree with the conclusion, based on Sally's year of birth and the lack of a son Tom in Jefferson's slave record.  One thing I did not understand, though, was the assumption that if Tom Woodson was to be Sally Hemings' son, he had to be the child born in 1790.  Could he simply have been missing from Madison's list?  I know one would expect Madison to know who his siblings were, but he would also be expected to know if they survived childhood.  Pretending

I am beginning to revise my work and the first ancestor has a name problem. She has at least ten variations on the records and, though she could read and write, I have no record signed by her. None are used more than once in combination. There are many Trees on this family and they have chosen one of the names, the one settled on after about two generations of descendants. Before that, the whole family seemed to have a name problem.

I'm trying to apply the GPS to tear down one of my brick walls in Aalten, the Netherlands. 

My ancestor Hendrik Bengevoort married in 1767, had three children with his first wife, remarried in 1778 (no children) and again in 1795. He then went on to have two more children with the third wife, the last of whom was born in 1799. Hendrik had died in 1798, leaving a pregnant wife behind.