Advice before editing this pre-1700 Kennedy profile?

Question

I have information to contribute to the profile of Gilbert Kennedy IV. This is what I can add:

• I believe the children listed for Isabel and Gilbert Kennedyi IV are incorrect. Some are dated befor the birth of the parents.

These are the sources I am using:

• wikitree profiles for children of Kennedy-740 and his spouse.

Should I contact one of the pre-1700 projects or know about any style guidelines before proceeding? Thank you!

Comments

Hi Sara. Would you like to let us know please exactly which of the children you are looking at who were born before the parents? As far as I can see, father Gilbert was born about 1593 (unsourced), mother Isabel about 1603 (unsourced), and the oldest child John about 1617 (unsourced). The dates may be estimates, but if they are correct, Isabel would have been about 14 when John was born: very young, but not out of the question.

Answer 1

Sara, if the children's birth dates are shown as earlier than those of their parents, it is not necessarily true that the parent-child relationships are not correct.  It is distinctly possible that some or all birth dates are not correct.

We can't just disconnect people based on data in their profiles - we need to determine if the data is correct and the first question I would ask is what are the sources for the birth dates.  If they are not good then research is needed to find good sources before doing anything else.