Family talk:Wolstone Child and Ellen Empson (1)

Marriage date and place - source? [31 December 2013]

I see that the marriage date and place have been added, with the month being uncertain (Mar or May). I looked up the TAG reference on Wolstone Child's page (published 1988) and it gives (p. 19) the marriage info as:

4 May 1590 in Chalfont St. Peter’s, Buckinghamshire

and comments on the fact that the location of the marriage is "a surprise" (which suggests that the author did not simply make a mistake in recording the marriage place, although I suppose it is possible that the source he used did).

Is there a more recent source that indicates that the month is March or that it cannot be determined whether it is March or May? Does it correct the marriage place, or has the place simply been assumed?

If I don't hear back in a reasonable time, I would at least like to correct the marriage place, and probably change the date to 4 May 1590, as there is no source cited for an alternative date. Thanks.--DataAnalyst 02:11, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

I have changed the marriage date and place as per TAG 63:19.--DataAnalyst 14:41, 31 December 2013 (UTC)

Birth dates of children are suspect [31 December 2013]

Exact birth dates of some of the children are given, with the place for one being St. Ethelburga. (First I'll note that for any "birth" date this old, it is far more likely to be a baptism date.) According to TAG 63:19, the parish registers for St. Ethelburga did not start until 1671, making it impossible to find a baptism that occurred in 1592. Unless these dates came from a very old family bible or similar source, it seems highly likely that they are spurious dates invented at some point in time for whatever reason (there are lots of these cases).

Many WeRelate contributors working to improve the quality of WeRelate data are of the opinion that unsourced facts about people prior to about 1700 should simply be removed, under the assumption that the data is as likely to be spurious as real, and if it happens to be real, someone will eventually put the data back with a proper citation. In light of this, I intend to come back in a few days or weeks and remove these dates, unless someone can source them in the meantime.

I trust that this will not offend anyone.--DataAnalyst 02:24, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

I did find and add a source for the birth date of Benjamin Child (which might legitimately be a birth (not baptism) date, if it came from his college record), so I will leave that one.--DataAnalyst 03:13, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

I have updated birth dates and places.--DataAnalyst 14:41, 31 December 2013 (UTC)