Person talk:Martha Prescott (2)

bad data [20 March 2010]

I removed "Martha had twins that were stillborn on 12 Nov 1655 and Martha died 24 Nov 1655." because it is full of errors, as is clear from looking at the Lancaster records. I document this stuff in the hopes the originator might read it and learn.

First, if one is going to do genealogy in the US before 1753, it is mandatory to understand the switch to the Gregorian calendar. This can be done by reading the wikipedia pages on Gregorian calendar (particularly section 2.1 and 2.2.1). It doesn't require taking some fancy genealogy class. Then, one would know that the 11th month, until 1752 when the switch occurred, was January, not November (the year started with March).

But more than changing Nov 1655 to Jan 1655/56, the twins were not born stillborn. One lived a day, and the other lived a week. And they were not born on the 12th, they were born on the 17th. This is like a secret that has been whispered around a circle and arrives back at the starting point different than it started. That is why you can't just copy websites but must look for primary documents, like the Lancaster records, to check the data against it (the Lancaster records are viewable on Google Books for free to anybody that has access to the Internet.) --Jrich 17:45, 20 March 2010 (EDT)