How to discern between conflicting information between sourced records

Question

My paternal 2nd great grandfather is William L. Armes (Arms). The 1880 US Census shows his birthplace as Mississippi, the Illinois Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916-1947 shows his birthplace as Tennessee. Everything else on the 2 records is the the same. I have not yet found a birth record for William. How do I best proceed with this? Thank you ;-)

Comments

I've been very sucsessful finding Official records at FamilySearch.org, Try there, it's a free site.

Robert Arms

Answer 1

Either one of these records could be an error. My suggestion is look for other censuses on William. Usually, given several of these, you should get more of one than the other.

Comments

Thank you Anne, I will continue the search ;-)

Answer 2

Always best to go with official birth documents.

Comments

Thanks George, I appreciate your answer ;-)