Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1907-05-14
TO PROVE WHO you ARE HARD.
John Smith May Not Testify in Court
That He Is the Son of Robert
Spatfh

Paradoxical as it may seem, the
most difficult thing to prove in
court of law is who you are. It is
simple matter if you have still living
plenty of relatives of an older genera
ton, but suppose your parents and
uneles 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
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.
Official 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
Dany on Aug. l, 1865. The record
of births in the Bureau of Vital Stats
tics at Albany will prove that son
named John was born to Robert and
Mary Smith on that date; the regis
ter TO the church may prove that
John son of Robert and Mary Smith,
was baptized on a 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. If your mother is alive she
can do it; if any relative who has
known you since you were born is
alive he can do it.
The successive suits for the estate
of A. T. Steyart failed on such
grounds as these The plaintiffs,
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 thu
ground
The identity of a 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 it requires quite mass OF
such matter, together with at least
some witnesses who can testify OF
| their own personal knowledge, before
court will accept such fact as
proved to its satisfaction.
All of this illustrates the great val
ue of keeping family records, Tor
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
great estate has been lost to its
rightful owners solely because OF their
inability to prove who they were
New York World.