The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1907-05-03
TO PROVE WHO YOU ARE HARD.
John Smith May Not Testify in Court
That He Is the Son of Robert
Smith


Paradoxical as it may seem, the
most difficult thing to prove in a
court of law is who you are. 1t is
simple matter if you have still living
plenty Of relatives of an older genera
ton, but suppose your parents and
uncles and aunts are dead, it becomes
well nigh impossible. AS a matter
of fact, your knowledge of your iden-
| tity is absolutely hearsay. You know
| your father and mother called your
their son, and to that fact you may
testify if the question of your identity
should ever come before judge and
| jury But the testimony goes before
the jury with the warning from the
Judge that it is only hearsay, for you
! have no personal knowledge of the
matter.
Oficial town or parish records are
valuable, but by no means conclusive.
| Suppose you are John Smith, son OF
Robert and Mary Smith, born at Al
bany on Aug 1, 1866. The record
of births in the Bureau of Vital Statis-
tics at Albany will prove that a son
| named John was born to Robert and
Mary Smith on that date; the regis
| ter 70 the church may prove that
John. son of Robert and Mary Smith.
was baptized on certain date, but
they do not prove you are the John
Smith, of whom these are records.
To establish the connection be-
tween you and the person mentioned
in the records, in other words to
prove your own identity, is the diff
| Guilty. II your mother is alive she
can do it; if any srelative who has
known you since you were born Is
| alive he can do 1t.
The successive suits for the estate
of A. To Stewart failed on such
grounds as these. The plaintifrs,
cousins of the late Mrs. Stewart, were
| unable to prove their relationship. 1t
was necessary in one of these cases
that a man should prove his late
| father and A. T. Stewart to have been
brothers, but he had no personal
| knowledge of the matter; he had
heard his father in Ireland refer to A.
T. Stewart as his brother, but the
! Court would not let him testify even
| to that and, as the defendants denied
the relationship, the case fell to the
| ground.
The identity of person becomes
even harder of proof after he is dead.
In the Royal Arcanum there are sew
eral hundred thousand dollars OF
of death benefits tied up because OF
the inability of heirs to prove that
| the insured man is dead.
Very often it is necessary to sue
! cess in litigation over an estate to
prove not only who were your par
ents. but who were your grandparents.
Family Bibles, with the records there
in, help out in this, but are not at all
conclusive. Birth and marriage GER
tificates are accepted as corrobora-
tive, but 1t requires quite mass OF
| such matter. together with at least
! some witnesses who can testify OF
their own personal knowledge, before
a court will accept such fact as
proved to it's satisfaction.
All of this illustrates the great val
ue of keeping family records, for
these. while not conclusive, are strong
corroborative evidence of identity, es
pecially if the handwriting of the sue.
cessive heads OF the family, in which
the entries are made, can be proved,
which is generally fairly easy. Many
a great estate has been lost to its
rightful owners solely because of their
inability to prove who they we're
New York World.