[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] varying dates

[Bill Fife]

Here is some family lore which, if true, could mean that even the recorded
birth date may be wrong.

My uncle writes

"My journey through life began in a small community in Russia geographically
identified as Volynska, Gobernia, Ojesda, Nova Richka, on the second day of
August, 1923 - but because my parents were unable to register this event
within the prescribed time limit and because there was a penalty for late
filing, my birth was recorded as being the eleventh of August."

Does anyone know if in fact there was a penalty for late filing?  If there
was, it could account for some ambiguity in birth dates.

Bill

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jerry Frank" <jkfrank at shaw.ca>
To: "Margrit Weigel" <margrit_weigel at web.de>;
<ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2003 9:43 AM
Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] varying dates


> There have been some good remarks about possible reasons for the
> errors.  An important genealogical principal is:
>
> "The closer the record is to the actual event, the more likely it is to be
> accurate."
>
> For example, a date of birth on a marriage record is probably more
accurate
> than a date of birth on a death record that occurs 50 years later.  Death
> records or tombstone information can be especially bad because this is a
> very emotional time for people when they are likely to provide incorrect
> information.  My grandfather's 1918 death certificate here in Canada
states
> that his mother was Rosalie Solomka.  In actual fact, his mother was
> Dorothea Steinwand and he was born in the village of Solomka in
> Volhynia.  He died in the Spanish flu epidemic and 3 of his children also
> died within the same week.  His son is buried in the same coffin with
> him.  My surviving aunt, at the age of 5, was sharing a bed with her older
> sister.  The older sister died in the bed beside her.  It is no wonder
that
> my grandmother was too emotional to provide accurate information.
>
> Similarly, a baptism record will probably have a more accurate birth date
> than the marriage record.  If your family kept a diary, then the mother's
> information provided a few days after the birth would be considered more
> accurate than that provided at a baptism a month later.
>
> In all cases, there is the possibility of an error.  In all cases,
whatever
> date you use in your own records should indicate the source.  In your
case,
> the first thing to check is the source of the information in the SGGEE
> database.  Did it come from a record book or from someone's family
> lore?  If it came from family lore, the tombstone may be more accurate.
If
> it came from a family Bible, it might be more accurate than the tombstone,
> depending on when the information was written down.  And so on.  usw.
>
> Another consideration is the location of the record.  If a person was born
> and married in parish A, then both records you find there should be
> reasonably accurate as the pastor at the marriage would refer back in his
> book to the baptism record.  However, if the person was born in parish A
> and married in parish B, then the marriage record might be more likely to
> contain an error because the pastor could not refer back in the books.
>
> Until you can find an actual birth record or death record, you may have to
> show both dates in your records as possibly correct.
>
> One last thing.  John Marsch questioned whether calenders were readily
used
> in the homes of our ancestors.  I don't know the answer to that but they
> must have been used by the pastors and other record keepers.  We know this
> because, in the case of deaths (in Volhynia and Podolia anyway - perhaps
> not Russian Poland), the age is often recorded as, for example, 54 years,
> 10 months, 23 days.  In the case of children, they might even add
> hours.  Again there can be errors in this calculation but many of the
> entries are also very accurate so they must have had calenders to assist
them.
>
>
>
>
> At 02:45 PM 21/07/2003 +0200, Margrit Weigel wrote:
> >I have some "problems" with slightly different dates. After the SGGEE
> >database my gr gr grandmother Friederike Hildebrandt, nee Krueger, was
> >born May 5th 1844  and died May 20th 1937. In the "Wolhynischen Heften
> >Nr.1" there is a story of a tombstone  which still exists in Korist where
> >she lived and died. On this stone you find a Friederike Hildebrandt *Feb
> >22nd 1844 and died March 09th1937. On the same stone you find the names
of
> >her sons Gustav (*Feb.02.1878) and Ferdinand   (*Jul 24th 1880). But the
> >dates we know are for Gustav *1877 and for Ferdinand *Jul13,1879 and
death
> >Oct16,1904 in Korist (on the tombstone his day of death is known as oct
> >14.1904).
> >
> >So I am rather sure that here my ancestors are buried. Does anybody else
> >has experience with differing dates?
> >
> >Futheron, even my father (born Oct 03, 1931) always told that he believed
> >that he had another
> >birthday when he was small. Unfortunately there is noone left anymore
whom
> >I could ask. Could it perhaps be an advantage to be older or younger in
> >the thirties in Volhynia?
> >
> >If somebody has an idea, I would appreciate every answer.
> >
> >Margrit Weigel
>
> Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta
> jkfrank at shaw.ca
>
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