G2G: What does "certain" & "uncertain" mean in my Profile?

Question

I am a new kid and filling out my Profile. I don't understand "certain" and "uncertain"!

Answer 1

Everything on your own profile is most likely “Certain,” if you know your names, dates, parents, locations, etc.  Certain means it is a provable fact. As you go back into the past you may not have that same level of knowledge and documentation, so some of those items on a profile may be uncertain if different records have conflicting dates, locations, or relationships.  In those cases you could  make a determination which seems to be correct, but mark it Uncertain and explain why in the text of the biography.

Answer 2

Those are what we refer to as Status Indicators.

For Name Fields, this let's other know that the information is just a guess. For example, you may only know a middle initial and not the full middle name, so you could add the initial and mark it as uncertain.

But on the other hand, you may know the person only had a middle initial, and not a full middle name, so you would add the initial and mark it as certain.

You can read more about uncertainty here: Help:Uncertain