Seeking a Source for Susanna Holmes Bickerstaff's Birth Date

Yesterday FamilySearch sent me an email saying, "Your great-grandmother would be celebrating her birthday this May!"  The email included a link to a calendar.  I was curious to see which great-grandmother they were highlighting, my great-grandmother Elvira (Bartley) Gerner, or my 2nd great-grandmother Lydia (Bell) Thompson.

The first event on the calendar was the death of Emma Virginia Nelson, not on my monthly celebrations list because I haven't yet included deaths. 

Next was Susannah Holmes (wife of William Bickerstaff), giving a birth year of 1812.  Hmmm.  I've done a little research on her have only an estimated birth year between 1811-1814.  These dates are based on census records and her 1894 obituary which does not give any birth date (neither year, month, nor day) and stated only that she was 85 at the time of her death.  How did FamilySearch know she was born in May, 1812?  I clicked on her link and saw the image below showing not just a birth month and year, but also a birth date. 

Someone must have found a source for that specific information somewhere and added it to FamilySearch's Family Tree.  When I clicked through to Susanna's page I saw that there were eight sources for her birth.  That's good.  Which one or ones would be the source for "5 May 1812?"

These are the birth sources.

• 1850 U.S. Census (birth year calculated at 1811, no birth date)
• 1860 U.S. Census (birth year calculated at 1814, no birth date)
• 1870 U.S. Census (birth year calculated at 1812, no birth date)
• 1880 U.S. Census (birth year calculated at 1813, no birth date)
• 1916 Ohio death certificate for her son Augustine Bickerstaff (no birth date)
• 1922 Ohio death certificate for her son John W. Bickerstaff (no birth date)
• 1928 Ohio death certificate for her daughter Elizabeth Nelson (no birth date)
• 1894 Find A Grave Index gave birth date as 5 May 1812
  

Only her Find A Grave page states her exact birthday.  I felt hopeful.

Sadly, there doesn't appear to be any source at that site that states her birth date with year, month, and day, not even a photo of her gravestone, which I hoped would give her dates. 

I still don't know the source of Susanna Holmes Bickerstaff's birth date as stated in FamilySearch's Family Tree.

Like most family historians, I love accuracy provided by sources that verify names, dates, locations, etc., but I'm not sure I'm going to find that for Susanna's birth date.  I opened a discussion about it at Family Tree, hoping that someone will see it then give a source and share a reason why we should use that date.

There are certainly challenges when collaborating with unknown others.

-–Nancy.

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