Family Date Book: Not a Reliable Source?!

I know what you are thinking. "You can't get more accurate than a family date book that has dates recorded by the family themselves. Recorded by the ones whom the dates apply to. People don't record their own records incorrectly!" Or do they? Well let me tell you what I've learned.

I've told the story about how my Grandma Ruth Wheeler gave me boxes of photos back in 2012. Along with those photos, she had a Family Date Book that had been passed down since the early 1900s. I thought I had hit a gold mine! Birth dates, Death dates, Marriages, Parents, Children, Immigration, etc. So much information! This was also the start of my obsession with family research. I took the book, photographed each page, then put it away. It was already falling apart and I didn't want to destroy this treasure. It is now packed away with some other special photos. Once I had the photos uploaded to my computer, I poured over them. Reading each page over and over again. Some pages were written in German. Others in English. I started with entering the English information into a family tree. See the photos below for copies.

Over time I started collecting documents to back up this information. I'm deducing from the information that the two authors were my 2nd Great Grandma, Pauline Ilg nee Kimmerle and my Great grandma Margaret "Honey" Ilg nee Buer. The information written in German I believe was written by Pauline as she was from Germany. Then I believe it was translated later and rewritten by Honey. If it wouldn't have been for Pauline documenting the births and deaths of her children, I wouldn't have found the documents supporting this information. And honesty, at the time when I found this, I didn't think I needed any other supporting documentation. I had the same thoughts as I wrote at the beginning of this entry. You can't get more accurate than this. Who am I to question this? They were present at these events, so to me that dictates this is true. I mean why would they lie? Boy was I in for a surprise.

The first crack in my foundation was the marriage between Joseph Ilg and Margaret "Honey" Buer (One of my authors). Their marriage date was listed in the book as July 23, 1919 and the location being Detroit, Michigan. See Photo. I also had other photos from anniversaries, with years and milestones written on them. Everything I got from my family backed up this information. 

Left: Page from date book listing their marriage information

Right: Family celebrating Joseph & Honey's 25th Wedding Anniversary

(Year written on back of photo)

After I added the information into my family tree, I started getting hints about documents linked to my family. The first thing that conflicted with my information was the 1920 census. Joseph and Honey were both listed, but listed separately and single in St. Louis, Missouri. Joseph lived with his mom and brother, and Honey was listed as living with her grandma, Maggie Helfrich. At this point, I am still new to all this, so I didn't know what to make of it. They were supposed to already be married and in Detroit, Michigan. Their child, my grandma's birthdate was September 9, 1920 and she was born in Detroit, Michigan. By this information, they should be there. What the heck?!

1920 US Federal Census for Margaret "Honey" Buer

1920 US Federal Census for Joseph Ilg

 So I decided I needed some help. I had joined a group called GAA (Genealogy Addicts Anonymous) in hopes of learning more. I posted my query to them, asking if anyone could find a marriage record for them. Within minutes, a gentleman found their marriage record. GREAT! He told me it was at FamilySearch.org. The location was definitely Detroit, Michigan, but he said the date I had listed was wrong. The date of the marriage record was July 23, 1920. Wait, what? 1920? Not 1919? What the.... OH!!! They got pregnant out of wedlock! They got married after Honey turned 17, and had my grandma just two months later. That's why they went to Detroit, Michigan. To hide the truth of what happened. 

What a crazy find. I do not know how many people knew this fact, if any. I do not even know if my grandma knew the truth about her parents. So the incorrect data that was recorded, was done purposefully. Great... OK that's just one thing... Doesn't mean the whole book is wrong does it? Doesn't mean there is something else wrong. Well...

The second crack in my foundation came just recently. I wrote about it in another blog post. I have had a hard time tracing my 2nd and 3rd great grandmas and their lives, mainly in Tennessee. In the family date book, it lists the birthdate of my 2nd great grandma Oma, born to Logan and Maggie Dennis. It also mentions Maggie's birthdate. Then it talks about Maggie and Oma leaving Tennessee, and coming to St. Louis, in Oct 1890, and marrying Jacob Helfrich. That's it. No marriage date for Logan and Maggie or even for Jacob and Maggie. This has been my brick wall since I started my research. Since I've written blog posts about this, I won't go deep into it. The big surprise came when I found the divorce record for Maggie and Logan. It mentions Maggie's "adopted child" with the same age as Oma. It also states Maggie does not have any child of her own. What?? So that means my 3rd great grandma is not related to us by blood. So once again, the family date book is wrong. It states Logan and Maggie had 1 child Oma. Not true. See the three photos below.

Both are pages from the family date book that state Maggie had 1 child, Oma, with Logan

Maggie's divorce record from Logan stating she has no child of her own.

Those were the two huge discrepancies in my family date book. Those were enough for me to call into question all the data that was written in English. As stated before, I believe it was written by Honey. To be fair, the last discrepancy, Honey may not have known about. So she may have written it thinking it was true. But that also means, anything my family has said and passed down, may not be true. I am having to look at all this in a whole new light. My mom has confirmed her side of the family was big on hiding the truth. So I have to be more skeptical when information is given to me by others on that side of the family, unless they have some documentation to back it up. 

I did find a few more errors when it was translated from the German to the English. They did not include the names of the villages the family came from. Only the general area. I had to go back to the German pages to find the names.

Left: The pages written in German that actually list the villages they came from

Right: The watered down English translation omitting the villages

As you can see, just because you have a family date book that includes all the information you could ever want, it still needs to be verified by documentation. This is information is written by a fallible human being. Mistakes can be made, information transcribed wrong, or purposefully misleading. Don't be discouraged.  The Genealogical Proof Standard has been extremely helpful in my research. It teaches you how to reconcile information that does not match and how to determine how much you should trust the source. If you haven't gotten a copy, I recommend you picking one up today. Don't give up if you have run into a snag. Just go over all your sources and determine if the information you received was reliable. Whether from another Ancestry member or a direct Family member, it could be wrong. So always live by the phrase: PROVE IT!