A
secondary source is a record
that was created a significant length of time after an event
occurred, or by a person who was not present at the event.
Examples
might include:
A
marriage application which provides the birth dates of the
bride and groom would be a secondary source for their birth dates
because it was created long after the births, and their actual knowledge of their own births is not reliable. The record would,
however, be a primary source for their marriage date. This holds
true for the death certificate. It would be a secondary
source for the birth date of the deceased person, but a primary source for the date of death, having been recorded, in
most instances, by someone in authority at time of the event.
Sometimes a source can only be relied upon as a generality. Baptism or birth dates
of known children can provide clues to the year of their parents’
marriage, but at the same time, cannot be considered proof that the marriage
actually occurred, or that there were not previously born ‘missing’
children which might radically alter the marriage year estimate.
Therefore, children’s birth dates might fit loosely
under the heading of secondary source, but, more correctly, would be called circumstantial
evidence. Therefore, the children’s data should be seen
as support
in finding the marriage, but not proof that the event occurred.
After
having explained the two terms in the heading, I come to the point.
In some cases, I have used the birth of a child to estimate the
probable year of the parents' marriage, but this should not be
construed to mean that I am stating a fact. Only that the
circumstances imply that a marriage occurred.