Hello,
I have been performing research on my mother's family from Scotland for several years. I have researched several of her branches back to the 1700's and 1600's where the Old Parish Registers. I have found a problem with garnering enough proof for furthering conclusions about a lineage once I get into the 1700's for many of the Old Parish Registers. Here is the problem. In certain circumstances I have someone that has died after 1855 where a set of parents is given on a statutory death record. I know I can then seek a birth record for that individual based on the age given in the statutory death record (along with other sources british censuses, etc.). I consult the OPR and then I find a record that is near or for the date of birth determined from the statutory death record. I then attempt to seek the marriage record for the parents in the Old Parish Registers and am able to find that. If I am lucky they mention the parents of the couple, their ages, and where they are from. From this I find a birth record that comports with the information or I may just find someone that matches the name being born in the parish or a parish in the immediate area to where they were listed as living. This is where things become vague in an evidentiary way. If I don't have the parents, and I have a match on the name and age for the individual, in the marriage record, can I claim that individual as an ancestor? I usually do a search to see if there are other individuals born in the same area with the same name in the same time time frame. Even if I manage to rule out other individuals can I claim the individual that turns up for my own? Usually I attempt to augment this information by following with collateral research on the individuals siblings, if there are any. This can yield further corroborative information on parentage or other details. What should be the standard here? I notice people have claimed all over in their ancestor trees people that they can only show place and age for drawing their conclusion (usually there are not duplicative individuals born in the same time frame and place).