* your thoughts:best use of 'child count' attribute?

[jmurphy]

Every now and again when I review my data, I wonder if I am getting the most out of Family Historian.

Today's puzzler: the 'child count' attribute.

It seems straightforward enough. You have a record that says someone has X children -- you have a place to record this number. Voila!

Ah, but the US Census often has 'mother of how many children' followed by 'how many living'.

At the moment I am putting in the total number of children at that date and then attaching a local note which states 'mother of X children, Y living' so that it is clear that the X number in the main child count entry is the total, not the number of currently living ones.

I do this because I want to highlight the number that will show the number of children is consistent with the last record, suggesting that I have made the correct identification when I linked those two sources to the same person.

For instance, a woman who is listed as the mother of 12 children, seven living on one record is not likely to be the same as the one who is listed as the mother of five children, five living on another, unless two have died since the first record, and the census-taker has written down the wrong information for the first question.

However, I could see where it makes sense to do it the other way around -- to record the number of living children at the time of the record in question -- so one could keep track of how many children might still show up in records.

I also use it as a way to attach local notes of how many grand-children and great-grandchildren are mentioned (but not by name) in obituaries.

Most of the time this will apply to women, but it is also useful for records like the WWI Draft Registration cards where the registrant was asked about dependents and often the answer is 'wife and 3 children'. Having the child count is a useful way of recording why you have three blank records for children and no other information.

My most spectacular case so far is a woman in a census who had 12 kids. On reviewing that census entry, I realized I only could identify half of those children!

How often does this attribute come into play for you, and has it led you to any lines of research you might have otherwise neglected?

Jan

ID:2764

[tonyt]

I use it where i know there were more children born than i have information for

e.g. my gt grandmother had 16 children but only 8 survived past the 1st year or so

So i record the 16 as total known children, although i only have information on 11 so far

Also where i know someone had no children i record the 0 to get the underline to remind me

Regards
Tony