* Making sensible selections

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peterbel
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Making sensible selections

Post by peterbel »

Has anybody else found this a problem?
When researching for possible relatives that pre-date UK national records, it seems that I have to weigh up:
The event.
The event date.
The known names.
The place.

And as back then it was very common for First names to repeated over several generations, especially the Males, one of the important facts that needs to considered is the age of the individuals concerned. But that doesn't appear until the individual is added to FH.
Is there a neat way of knowing this before adding, or could it need a PlugIn?

I was faced with this problem when I found that I had added an ancestor who had his son at 40, not impossible but unlikely!
Tracing the Devon Bellamy family along with their partners.
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tatewise
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Re: Making sensible selections

Post by tatewise »

If FH can work out the age then so can you.
The Project data must have the Date of Birth of the person for FH to determine the age.
The event date is known to you.
So the age within a year or two is the event date year minus the Date of Birth year.

That seems too straightforward, so I must have misunderstood your problem.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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GeneSniper
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Re: Making sensible selections

Post by GeneSniper »

peterbel wrote: 18 Oct 2020 16:30 I was faced with this problem when I found that I had added an ancestor who had his son at 40, not impossible but unlikely!
I have friends who just had their first born age 42 & 43 so not as unlikely as you might think
William

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BillH
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Re: Making sensible selections

Post by BillH »

My ggg grandfather had 7 children after the age of 40. The last one was born when he was 58. I have many men who had children born after they were 40 and quite a few when they were over 50, even some who were over 60. Not unusual at all.

Bill
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gwilym'smum
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Re: Making sensible selections

Post by gwilym'smum »

There are examples in the parish registers of very old men marrying young women and having children in their 70s.
Ann
Researching Mayer, Parr/Parr, Simcock, Beech and all related families
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Gowermick
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Re: Making sensible selections

Post by Gowermick »

I think you’re worrying about the wrong gender! There is no upper age limit for a man to father a child, (wasn’t Charlie Chaplin 73 when he fathered his youngest child?), but biology tells us most women become infertile by 40-50 years of age, with a few exceptional women having a natural birth in their 50’s!
With the help of modern science, this has been extended into their 60’s, but for practical historical purposes, we can consider 50 as the normal upper age limit for women to have natural births.
Of course, there could always be exceptions to the rule :D
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peterbel
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Re: Making sensible selections

Post by peterbel »

This thread has seemed to have gone in a direction I wasn't expecting! :o
My example of a 40 year old father was only to highlight a 'fact' that could be worth investigating. Yes older men do have children and yes the ages and age gaps can be manually calculated, but why should I calculate when the programme can do it for me, and very much faster? My intended suggestion was that FH or a Plug In could calculate some of the following:
Age of M & D at time of Baptism/Birth of new entry.
Year difference between: Marriage, Siblings or other key M & D dates.

Some of these figures could help to identify if the correct 'John Smith' in generations of 'John Smith's and Uncle 'John Smith's has been selected. Not forgetting the 'John Smith's that aren't directly related.
Tracing the Devon Bellamy family along with their partners.
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tatewise
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Re: Making sensible selections

Post by tatewise »

Sorry Peter but you have lost me.
What are M & D? Marriage & Death perhaps?

Are you asking FH to predict the likely Age at Marriage and Age at Death from a person's Baptism/Birth Date?

Not sure what the Year difference calculations are all about.

I think we need some more concrete examples of what you want to be calculated based on what raw information.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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Gowermick
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Re: Making sensible selections

Post by Gowermick »

Miketate,
I think he means Mum & Dad :D
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tatewise
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Re: Making sensible selections

Post by tatewise »

Didn't think of that :oops:

The FH Tools > Preferences > Estimates establishes age ranges for Mother's/Father's age at childbirth.
You can adjust those to suit what you prefer.
I'm not clear what automatic calculations FH could do.

I'm still not clear what other automatic year difference calculations are desired and on what statistics they are be based.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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redvanman
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Re: Making sensible selections

Post by redvanman »

My approach is to examine the evidence carefully before I add anyone to my project. I add individuals only if I know their relationship to others with a good degree of certaintly.
This does sometimes involve calculating ages the "hard" way (although IMO it's not really that hard). For me, this is preferable to entering everyone into FH and then trying to sort out who is relevant. This approach also involves extensive notes outside of FH.
I admit that this might not work in every case - for example when you're trying to scoop up everyone in a village and then work out how they are all related.

Alyn
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peterbel
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Re: Making sensible selections

Post by peterbel »

I will have a think and try and create some real value examples, however my motivation was to try use dates to help me sift through possible family members to determine the best match, using the FH software as a tool as well as a data record.
I am trying to do avoid storing information anywhere but in FH / AS, unlike you Alyn!
I am sure I am telling everyone what they already know but, Pre Census detail in BDM records is fairly limited and in the rural area my family lived in there were large families with cousins and nephews often having the same name, I expect this is common. The Focus window helpfully provides Marriage Age and this made me think that the software could help a little more if it made more use of the dates.
Sorry, yes, M & D is Mum and Dad !
Tracing the Devon Bellamy family along with their partners.
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Mark1834
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Re: Making sensible selections

Post by Mark1834 »

Don't forget the option to display timeline facts as well. It won't help you choose the correct entry, but it will give you the ages of individuals at the time of other related events, such as children births.
Mark Draper
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peterbel
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Re: Making sensible selections

Post by peterbel »

Yes, the timeline facts is very useful, I try to remember using it when adding a new entry
Tracing the Devon Bellamy family along with their partners.
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