Mysterious family tree date anomolies

Mike -

Often, age issues like that are a result of multiple merges with various dates. It's not uncommon for there to be discrepancies between sources, especially the farther it is from being 'Primary.'

The first portion of cleaning up the tree is wrapping up -- the merging and narrowing down to one profile per person. As we work, users identify issues like, dates, locations, parentage... We research and correct.

We now have much better sourcing tools. As new profiles are added or as research is done, we're getting facts tagged and backed up by sources verifying them. Unfortunately, the tools weren't as functional when the bulk of the tree was created.

So, long story short, the collaborative process allows for all of us to take ownership of the tree and to contribute what we can!

Must such errors are created by people who use estimated dates. In general you cannot trust dates from that time period.

Secondly many of those dates are missing before, after and between notations, - unfortunately still unsupported by Geni.

TheGeni system uses for SIMPLE module for the date specification. Presently, there are only two possibilities:

exact date or about (c.).

The most of the genealogical programmes are more flexible:
by knowing TWO dates from somebody's life it is typical to say:

born BEFORE (the earlier date) e.g. born b.1320
and died AFTER (the later date) e.g. died a.1353

Mike, in your case (Sir Robert) it the most probable that he was mentioned the last time in the 1353 year but he died some years later.

Until Geni supports "before" "after" etc. it's better to note this in the "about me" section

"About me" is also a fine place to note where info is from, and whether you trust it. For instance, one of my great-greats always celebrated his birthday on the 12th of June, and this was duly noted in the family records, but the church records claim that he was born on the 7th of May. One would assume that the parents knew best, but it's an anomaly that needs noting.

(dates not the right ones.... whatever)

For most of these things, "about me" is the currently right answer!

Wow! Thank you to all who have responded here. I am so surprised to find knowledgeable users willing to offer their assistance.

I now feel like I can tackle 'the tree'!

That is what I find so valuable about Geni.

The collaborative nature has allowed my tree to grow, my knowledge to grow, and relationships with other users around the world to grow.

"The whole is greater than the sum of our parts."