Look out for improbable dates

To have a critical look at the dates in your genealogy database once in a while is a good idea. If you are looking at part of a pedigree you haven't viewed for a while, just start adding up and subtracting the numbers and evaluate the result. Look for dates that create improbable or impossible situations for your ancestors. Were children born in the same year, less than 9 months apart? Do the ages that events were supposed to happen add up? Were your ancestors married during childhood, or are women having children at an advanced age? 
All of these indicate that either the dates are wrong, or the people are misidentified. Poor math can also result in the skipping of a generation. 
  

To check for errors, you can use genealogical analysis programs like these: 

• The Genealogica Grafica tool does thorough tests on GedCom consistency, like finding subsequent births within 9 months.
• The website Bonkers can identify groups of claims that are inconsistent with each other.  
• Use FTAnalyzer to investigate your family tree and find errors like childrens birthdates before parent was born.
• Analyze is a command line program for displaying unconnected individuals in any GedCom file.
• GedCom View and Compare visualizes differences in the data of persons included in two GEDCOM files.
• GEDCOM Validator is a tool for checking a GEDCOM file for problems which could lead to data loss when transferring files between different genealogy applications.
• When submitting a GedCom file to the Ged-InLine website, a report is produced with warnings about deviations from strict GedCom.
• With GenMerge you can find possible double persons in a GedCom file and merge them, when needed. 
• The GedCom Service Programs checks GedCom files for duplicate entries and logical errors and allows a merging of duplicate persons. Additionally, a selection of a GedCom file can be exported, when you want to share only part of your data with someone. 
• With GedClean you can filter out living people from a GEDCOM file, creating a modified file for privacy purposes.

For more GEDCOM Software and Tools tools, see also Cyndi's List.

Een Nederlandse versie van deze pagina vind je op mijn Genealogie Bos Blog.