29 December 2012

He Enlisted at Precisely Midnight on 19 Oct 1864

In reality, I don't merge from Ancestry.com's databases into my own trees. However, I do sometimes look at what the merges would do so that I can help others and see where problems may arise. The issues I encountered today were new ones--at least for me.

This screen shot from the "American Civil War Soldiers" database at Ancestry.com  There appears to be an incomplete address in the "Source Information" indicating where Ancestry.com obtained the data that was used to created "American Civil War Soldiers"

That is a minor problem--and hopefully one that can be easily fixed.

What is more interesting is that when the information from this database is used to "merge" into a tree at Ancestry.com it gives a date that is as precise as the time. I'm not certain what time they enlisted the men, but I doubt the records are that precise. And I doubt that it took place at 12:00:00 AM. Interesting that the time is down to the second. Nice.


What also is interesting is that the date of residence is not listed when merging. 

Note: I did not merge these two individuals. I wanted to see what the screens looked like. The Ira Sargent on the right (my ancestor) is not the same as the Ira H. Sergant/Sargent on the left. They are two completely different people. 

Maybe we'll have an update on this after the new year. These screen shots were current as of 2:45:00 PM Central time today. Ok, I'm not certain about the seconds, but I bet Ancestry.com really isn't either.