We’ve all been there – tracking down an ancestor and finding an answer we’ve been looking for on a document, only to find another record that says something different!

The death certificate has a different date of death than the headstone, a census gives a different place of birth than a marriage record, and so on. This is a common occurrence in records from earlier time periods when people didn’t put as much importance on ages, spellings, etc. as we may now. Do you ever find yourself stuck when this happens, uncertain which one is correct? Next time you hit that wall, follow these two guidelines for dealing with conflicting information. While they aren’t foolproof every single time, they tend to be helpful in most instances.