[WikiEN-l] Looking up death dates in government death records: original research?

[John Lee]

On 4/30/07, Newyorkbrad (Wikipedia) <newyorkbrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I can't agree with this. The other day, I created a biography article
> for an individual whose full name (including MI), date and place of
> death, and age at death I had. I used the SSDI to obtain the date of
> birth rather than leave a blank in the article, as I couldn't find it
> elsewhere. No rational policy would preclude using the records for
> something like this.
>
> Newyorkbrad


I would say it depends on the individual case; one-size-fits-all policies
won't work here. If we have most of the blanks filled, and can confidently
say that we're talking about the same individual, then there's no reason not
to rely on things like the SSDI where no other source can be found. If
there's so little information available that we can't confidently say the
SSDI is referring to the same person as the subject of the article, then
it's original research.

Johnleemk