Genealogy Chat

Sometimes when I enter the year for an event in a person's record e.g. 1846 and then tick the 'tick if unsure' box, it then shows 'True 1846' at the top of the record.
What does this mean?

A guess - 1846 is the year you were interested in. Other results are 'close' to it but not exact.

I don't KNOW - but supposing John is born in Dec 1846, but died aged 1 in the first 11 m of 1848. Many birth years are calculated by subtracting the age shown on some record (e.g., census, b.cert, m.cert, passenger list, etc) from the year of the event. Thus John's calculated birth year would be 1847, whereas his true birth year is 1846. My GUESS is that this is how "True 1846" is used.

Thanks for your replies so far.
DetEcTive - In this case 1846 is not necessarily the year I'm interested in. I'm interested in knowing the correct year & date.
mgnv - I take your point which I always bear in mind when calculating a birth year from a census. As censuses are held in late March or early April, there is a 75% chance that the correct birth year was the year before the 'Abt. Year' shown in the census record. Therefore I always record 'Abt.' the previous year in my own records until I establish a more accurate date.

In the example I used for 1846 the exact birth year is not known (to me) which is why I ticked the 'tick if unsure' box. If GU claims to have a record that proves the 'True Year' why do I not receive a Match or Hot Match from them? If they don't have a matching record how can they state what is 'True'?

I don't know either. I have just looked at one of my ancestors, (age 3 on 1881 census) and it says YOB 1877, unsure box is ticked, because it could be 1878, and the next box says Abt 1877.

No sign of True anywhere.

I would suggest that the Site Administrator reviews posts of a technical nature like this in the Genealogy Chat and provides an answer or obtains one from the programmers if necessary.

Thanks to Andysmum for your report on a related but different slant on this.

The Community Manager might read your thread. If you're very lucky she might ask the technical department on your behalf!

If you wished, you could email Support direct and ask for the query to be forwarded.

[email protected].

If/when you get an answer, do please let us know.

Here is my query to GR and their reply :-

T am referring to the Record Box (highlighted blue) which appears on the right of the screen when you select edit from a person you view on your tree. This has the person's name at the top followed by Year Born - Year died and then fields to input or edit General, Birth, Baptism, Marriage, Death, Relationships & Extras.

The fields for 'Year of Birth' and 'Tear of death' each have a 'Tick if Unsure' box after them. If you tick this box, sometimes messages appear at the top of the Record saying e.g. 'True 1846' or 'YOB 1877'.

Are these messages telling me that Genes Reunited KNOW for sure that these years are in fact correct and exact, whereas I am unsure and estimating the year? If this is the case, how is this information arrived at? Is GR going by another member's tree entry which has a reliable citation (e.g. Statutory Birth or Death Register Entry) as proof? Otherwise, how is the information arrived at or what is the message indicating?

Regards, Hugh.

The Reply:-
Dear Hugh,

Thank you for your reply and this information.

I can confirm that Genes Reunited are unable to confirm the exact or correct dates of an event for any individual.

If the year of birth or death entered is not confirmed and the 'Tick if Unsure' box is used it will give this as a circa year as it has not yet been confirmed.

Once further research has been done by the tree holder and they are able to confirm the correct dates when this is entered into the tree it will then be changed.

With kind regards,


Liam Kelly
Genes Reunited Support Team

Which doesn't answer my question at all! If GR can't answer questions about their own software, where are you supposed to turn? (Incidentally, this was my second query to GR about this - they said they didn't really understand the first, which I thought was clear enough - other posters here seem to understand what I'm talking about).

I think GR has explained their software.

Incidentally, even if GR has a record saying Ursuls Mafeking Hesmondhalgh, d/o Francis Xavier & Christian Grizel Hesmondhalgh was b 16/5/1900 and baptized 1/7/1900, but how would GR know if the record refers to your Usula Mafeking Hesmondhalgh, d/o your Francis Xavier & Christian Grizel Hesmondhalgh?

Sorry, mgnv, but I don't see how GR has explained the proper meaning of the messages and how they are arrived at . They say that If the 'Tick if Unsure' box is ticked, "it will give this as a circa year" - In fact it states that it is TRUE. In the other example it stated 'YOB 1877' as if it is an absolute fact, not a circa.

Hugh, the example I quoted before was an entry that was uploaded on a gedcom.

I have just done what you did and entered a fictional death date for my aunt, then ticked the unsure box and saved it. At the top of the record box it said

M***** H******
1909-true1998

I am as puzzled as you - it simply doesn't make sense! :-S :-S :-S

I have now deleted it again and all is back to what it should be.

I should add that I have made no alterations to my tree on Genes, or uploaded any gedcoms, since they re-vamped the site. It is all on FTM.

Andysmum, thank you for that - that's the 3rd format for these messages that's been reported -

true 1846
YOB 1877
1909-true 1898

I've just created a 4th with an experiment like you did. I entered an Unsure birth date of 1740 and Unsure death date of 1890 (ludicrous, of course) and it showed
'true 1740-true 1890'. Yet, in their latest reply GR tell me they are unable to replicate these messages under test conditions, but ordinary members have no problem in generating them!

P.S. these messages only seem to appear at the time of entry, as the example above subsequently changed to c1740-c1890 as did all other examples I had like this.

Regards, Hugh

After numerous emails back and forth, GR have now passed this "onto our tree expert for further investigation".