7.3 Analysis
Keep in mind that an important characteristic of a primary record is that it is recorded at or near the time of the event by people who were there. A death record is a primary record and will usually document the date and place of death, but it may also be a source for a birthdate and place. However, the same document that is a primary source for the death information is not a primary source for the birthdate and place. Consider who may be providing the information. A spouse? A child of the deceased? It is very unlikely that it is a person who witnessed the birth of the deceased and the information is not being recorded near the time of the birth. Each document requires analysis and careful research. The death record is an excellent primary source for the death, but the birth information on the record is not as reliable. It is a good practice to seek a primary source for the birth even if the information was documented on a death record.
Figure 7.1 is an example of a death record that also has birth information. The death certificate is for Magdalena Schwarz who died in Linz, Linz Stadt, Upper Austria, Austria on 13 June 1827. The index for this record estimates she was born in 1729 based on the 98 years listed as the age at death. Even if her specific birthdate was written on the record, this document is a primary source for her death information but not for her birth because the person who provided the information could not have been present 98 years before when she was born. That does not mean this is not a good source for her birth information. It means that a good researcher will perform an analysis on each document to understand the data and make careful judgements about each point. A genealogists should use each piece of information wisely.
Utilizing the same steps as the previous exercises, genealogists can go to a wiki page looking for the blue “Online Genealogy Records” button. If it doesn’t appear on a city or township page, go up one jurisdiction to find it for the county, or province; it may even be at the country level. The blue button leads to a chart of record collections that previous researchers found most useful for the area. Starting a search with these record collections gives the genealogist the best chance of quickly identifying records. This is a starting point and a good way to be efficient, but it is not an exhaustive list of collections. For more collections, search the catalog for that place.
In Professional Genealogy author and renowned genealogist Thomas W. Jones outlines some aspects of analysis in the portion of the book titled “Reasoning from Evidence.” Jones explains that as humans we routinely make assessments, and this skill should be applied to sources discovered during family history research:
Genealogists assess both information and the sources that contain the information. Like evidence, these assessments usually are mental. Often called genealogical “analysis,” information tests and source tests help us understand the qualities and likely reliability of the evidence we might form from information within a source. Information and source tests are not labeling exercises, and they do not determine whether information is right or wrong…. Genealogists assess context by asking why an information item says what it says. What was the information’s purpose? What triggered its telling or recording? Could it reflect an unrecorded event? Context assessment also includes looking for consistencies and inconsistencies between an information item and surrounding information. Sources are containers of information that may provide useful evidence.1
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