Sunday, February 21, 2021

Documenting Myself

Building out a timeline for myself, I noticed that the fact of my birth only contains one source listed in my RootsMagic database, and it's not something that would hold up to any sort of scrutiny.

Rummel, Merle & Madelaine Olt, comp., "Three Sons of Steffan Petry, 1729-1977", Gateway Press, Baltimore, MD, 1977, p. 401.

While I have primary sources for my birth scattered among my digital genealogy files, apparently I'd never taken the time to actually examine those sources and update documentation in my database.

In today's era of no privacy, where there are enough public records out in cyberspace for someone who wanted to know my birthdate could find it out, I'm sure the young folks today would be surprised to know that there are also bound genealogies in libraries that have some of the same data printed less than 50 years ago.

[Side note: No documentated cases of identity theft have ever been proven to be caused by genealogical research - I'll recommend you read this excellent post from James Tanner.]

For the purpose of this project my research question is stated thusly, "The objective of this research project is to identify the parentage of Travis LeMaster, born [redacted] in [redacted], Indiana."

Because this phase of the research involves living people, I will not post the particulars.


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