how do I get Wikitree to recognize the christening dates in my Gedcom when there is no birthdate?

Question

many of the people in my trees from the 1800's and earlier have sources from Parish records which are Baptismal or Christening dates. Because the clerks seldom recorded actual birthdates those people have a blank birth field which Wikitree doesn't like. Can Wikitree be redirected to the Christening field?

Comments

Hi Bob,

I just re-categorized your question into the WikiTree Tech section, and added the GEDCOM tag so someone who can answer your question will be more likely to see it.

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Thank you, Erin. I wasn't sure which category the question fit into.

Answer 1

Hi Bob, if I'm not mistaken you'll have to use the Christenings as birthdates or make the birthdate fields list before the christening date. This way you'll be able to get your GEDCOM onto WikiTree. Otherwise you'll have to find the time to create each of those profiles by hand. Sorry, I could be wrong but those are your only options, if I'm not mistaken.

Good  luck,

Mike

Comments

Thanks, Mike.

Doing hundreds of profiles by hand isn't an option. I plan to delete the Gedcom and then create another one that contains the required fields. I think this will be faster in my home software.

Thank for your advice.

Bob

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I've opted to say that the birth date is before the christening / baptism date (and sometimes it's a number of years before) and the death date before the burial date. With frail babies the birth and baptism could well be the same but that we will never know. Deaths could very well be on the same date as the burial but again, we may never know. I've done this consistently in my desktop software.

In each case use before and you can't go wrong.

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Thanks Rosemary.

I have kind of worked out the same ideas. I don't like the idea of adding information that is speculative and has no source. But if WikiTree says I have to put a Birthdate in, I will.

Bob

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I have the same problem, but I dont like using the christening dates as birthdates because sometimes the child was actually born the previous year or even years earlier. So I put in the year of the baptism and then use the abt tag.

And in the notes I state the christening date along with a line that says - it is assumed that (name) was born in the year (whatever the year of christening was).

I do it this way because I have had some ancestors who were born in the dec quarter of the previous year with the christening often held in the first 3 months of the new year. I also have one ancestor who was actually 14 years old when she was baptised.