How do we differentiate between Fact and Fiction?

[chiddicks]

I have been thinking about this a lot recently, when is a fact a genuine fact, even details we find on a Birth Certificate, a child’s name, a fathers name or the DOB Itself? How can we prove categorically that these details are in fact correct?

https://chiddicksfamilytree.com/2021/01/27/how-do-we-differentiate-between-fact-and-fiction/

[louisa maud]

Don't  think we can

I have a cert here 1893, father named as mother's  first husband and shown  as "dec", he wasn't,  she then took a totally different man to court and sued him, his name was not on the cert and he doesn't feature anywhere in the family,  he had to pay her a single payment through the court, it is something I have wondered about for years, no DNA  in those days, apart from word it cannot be proved, can it ?


Louisa Maud

[SharonAnne]

My dad used his step-father's surname and listed his step-father, Alec, as his father on his marriage certificate. My gran didn't marry Alec until my dad was 2 years old, and he definitely wasn't my dad's father. There's no father listed on his birth certificate (though the family knew who his father was - it was a short wartime romance). Anyone researching in the future, without the benefit of family knowledge and DNA, would probably assume that Alec was the father and would research that whole line.

My great grandfather lied about his age on his marriage certificate. He was 19 when he married, but he said he was 21. He and my great gran already had a child and were living with her parents. I assume he lied so that he didn't have to get his parents permission for the marriage.

[Kiltpin]

I agree that we can never be sure. Even our own memories cannot be trusted.   

But, for the most part, I would argue that I doesn't matter. If there is no inheritance involved, or there is no need to differentiate between murder and manslaughter, why does a date matter. 

Even the supposed importance of a child being born out of wedlock. I believe that the importance is that the life was lived rather than it conformed to some artificial construct. 

Regards 

Chas

[Erato]

"details we find on a Birth Certificate"

That kind of fact could, at least in theory, be verified by DNA.

Other kinds of 'facts' are much tougher to pin down.  Is it true that [as my grandmother maintained] her father, unlike his brothers, did not serve in the Union Army because he was designated to stay home and look out for the women and children in the village?  Or was he a shirker?  Did Eliza Ennis really run out the back door to elope with Alonzo Yates when she saw her angry father approaching the front door of the inn where she worked, as reported in the History of Columbia County, Wisconsin?  Or was that just a funny story?

[chiddicks]

Thanks for the comments much appreciated, its a great topic to debate and. I know that we have the genealogical proof standard to work too.

I guess it only matters, from a genealogy perspective, if we are following the incorrect family line, in terms of the accuracy of your tree.

I am sure that we all have ancestors who have been liberal with the truth on the documents we find, part of the fun is also trying to work out the fact from the fiction!

[Girl Guide]

Truth is what you see it as being, but is it so?  Some sayings about truth here:-

https://www.wisesayings.com/truth-quotes/

[coombs]

No way to be 100% sure, people lied on official documents, and probably still do. I say hospital birth records are more reliable than actual birth certs as anyone can fudge a date on a birth cert, if the birth was registered late or for another reason.

[Nifty1]

‘ In summary: the strongest case is made using multiple, correlating original records made by known, independent informants’

I find it annoying that the fact of the matter is difficult to substantiate.
Also, annoying that I can not show my findings to anyone in my family that must have shielded me from certain events, that is, if they were aware of them themselves
I have circumstantial evidence that my maternal ex mechanic, soldier, cafe proprietor, businessman  grandfather might  not have been the kindly old man whose knee I sat upon in the early 1950s.

My late uncle left me a a fragment of a photograph of a figure of a man that looked rather like Al Capone standing next to two older men in bowlers and a woman with a fedora hat on. It was some time before I discovered that the picture was taken at a wedding reception when, through investigation and good fortune I was able to connect with a distant relation, even older than myself, who managed to provide me with a facsimile of the complete picture from which my fragment had been torn. Then it was some time more before I realised that the Capone like figure was my grandfather. Why had his likeness been separated from the group I wondered.


Some months, or, years later I visited a cousin, famous in his own right, although it is in the realms of public knowledge as to why I am only letting readers know to try and arouse their interest. He showed me a picture of a Daimler with his father standing next to it. The car was probably used as a taxi in one or the businesses that my GF had a hand it. Or, it may have been owned by gf’s friend and associate racehorse Trainer Tommy Westhead. Where did such a vehicle come from one may wonder. It was presumably obtained in the years of postwar austerity. Perhaps it was material obtained from  the USA Lend Lease scheme and stored in the bonded warehouse that GF and son used to keep an eye on when they were in the Home Guard.


It it wise not to keep a secret ?