How accurate are headstones?

[lazarus]

I have a great grandfather I've been seeing conflicting info on in various records. The big issue is his name, either Edward or Edmond. I've got that mostly solved, but here's the conundrum.

My aunt went across the street from her house and looked at his grave. According to his gravestone, his name is Halton Edmond Patterson, and he was born 14 Sep 1885. But according to his WWI draft registration card, his name is Edmond Halton Patterson, and he was born 28 Nov 1886.

:shrug: I think one of my great aunts was responsible so the date/name on the headstone, so I'm leaning towards thinking that's the wrong info.

[shraby]

1. Many headstones have errors on them. Some have

nicknames, middle names in place of the first name, incorrect years and incorrect dates. I have a large website for genealogy for the county I live in. Many tombstone photos, transcriptions, births, deaths, obituaries. Many many times, there is conflicting information from record to record. Just keep collecting bits and pieces and you may not get an entirely accurate account, but it will have to be a consensus of what you've found.

[Rosie1223]

2. Sources: Primary vs Secondary

http://ancestry.org/primary-secondary-genealogy-sources/

In a nutshell, Primary sources (contemporary info or info from the individual himself) are typically more accurate than secondary. So in your example, Edmond probably filled out his WWI draft card in person so I would judge that to be more likely accurate.

However, people sometimes lied about their age to get married or join the military, so....your mileage may vary....

:hi:

[lazarus]

3. he was plenty old enough

so I'm going with the primary source (WWI draft registration) over the headstone.

On edit: Thanks!

[Gormy Cuss]

4. or were unaware of their legal names, believe it or not.

I know of two cases where info provided by the individual was different from what appeared on the birth certificates. You're right though that info provided by the individual is usually more accurate than secondary data.


eta: by coincidence, one of the two I've researched had Edward/Edwin confusions. Maybe "Eds" are more susceptible to this sort of thing. :+

[Rosie1223]

5. Haha -- The only thing absolute about genealogy is

there are no absolutes!

:hi:

[Dem2theMax]

6. Amen, amen, amen. Truer words have never been spoken!

And tombstones LIE! LOL.

In my searching, I've found three ancestors who died within months of each other, and they shared the same tombstone.
They died in 1899. But in 1900, they are alive and well in the census. Go figure.

I have another ancestor who, according to her tombstone, died in 1890, but the local 1891 paper mentioned that she was alive and suffering from
breast cancer.

My own grandmother, who died many years before I was born, was buried without a tombstone.
My Dad never knew this, as he was fighting in WWII when she died. He barely knew her, (LONG story,)
and I only recently found out that she, and her second husband, had no tombstone.
Four family members pooled some money, and we purchased a tombstone for them a few years ago, over 60+ years after their deaths.
The cemetery had birth and death year info on my Grandmother, but I had to verify it before we ordered the tombstone. It turns out that my Grandmother was VERY fond of changing the year of her birth. I found every document my Grandmother had signed, which had her birth year on it. I had three different birth years for her, and it took a great deal of guessing to decide which year to put on the tombstone. The date I put on it does not match the cemetery info, which will certainly confuse genealogists to come. But I had to use the year that my Grandmother used the most often, and the one year she used with the births of her first three children. That was the time period of her life where it was most likely that other family members would have been around to make sure she put down the correct information. When I think of what we went through to get a 'most likely' birth year for my Grandmother, I can see how hard it has to have been to get the correct information on a tombstone back the age of 'word of mouth.' It's no wonder we find such confusing 'facts' in the past. Not that it doesn't make it any more frustrating for us, but at least I can laugh at it...sometimes. ;)