Recording infants with unknown dates

Jerry James

On the back of the parents' gravestone is an inscription with 3 names, and the text "children of [parents' names], died in infancy". I have not been able to find any other record of these three children. Their birth and death dates are unknown. How would you record that?

Paul W

Unless you have any idea of the approximate dates of their births / deaths, you will have to attach them to the parents with just the information you have: their names only. They will then appear in alphabetical order.

Perhaps add a Note in the Collaboration sections of their profiles, explaining why the lack of sources and data in the Vitals sections.

On the order listing, I don't see that as much of an issue in instances like this. However, it would be good to able to choose the order of listing when the dates are not known, but their order of birth is. I am thinking particularly of when an eldest son / child is mentioned in an old will, but you can't make them appear as the eldest child without having any dates inputted.

betsy123

@Jerry James I agree with @Paul W , but also have been wondering if the parents have any other children listed in their family profile….. it would give you an approximate time frame in which to continue to search records for the dates of these three children. I also feel like common sense would indicate that the order of the names on the gravestone would probably be the same order in which these little ones were born, oldest to youngest. In any case, you should list their names with their parents and make a note of the fact that you have been unable to find dates. Keep looking ! New records become available all the time. Good luck.

Jerry James

Thank you for the replies. Much appreciated. Those parents did have 3 other children who survived to adulthood. The first was born slightly before the parents were married, so probably really was their first child. There is a large gap between #2 and #3, though, so it is likely 1 or 2 of these infants were born in that gap. That's all guesswork, though. I will keep watching for records that might shed some light on the issue. Thank you both!

Áine.ní.Donnghaile

@Jerry James If you are comfortable sharing the PIDs of the parents, so we know when and where, we might have more suggestions regarding other record sets that may be available.