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Why put widely believed age of 70? its either 70 or give a reason why it might not be, I'd change but there may be a reason. Anyone know? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.206.165.28 (talk • contribs) 23:04, 18 January 2007
True. I looked at the page history and noted the following:
Aug 21, 2008: An IP adds an assertion that she was born in San Francisco, California. This is sourced to Imdb, which, like Wikipedia, is subject to unreliable information in its bio/trivia sections.
Aug 31, 2008: Over the course of several edits which expand the article, an editor changes the article so that it stated she was born in San Francisco, California in the infobox, with the qualification that "Some reports claim that Irene Ryan ... was born in El Paso, Texas" in the early life section.
And that appears to have remained the case since.
Ordinary Googling isn't of help here, as web pages have a tendency to quote/copy Wikipedia or Imdb. Looking in the Google News Archives, several contemporaneous obituaries (i.e. those written before the internet had a chance to mung things up) state that Ryan was born in El Paso.[1][2][3] I can't find any of that vintage which claim she was born in San Francisco.
"she was born to an army sergeant father in El Paso, Tex., and moved to San Francisco with her parents at an early age."
I'd like to check a few things out before making a change to the article itself, but I'm inclined to think this might be the cause of have contributed to the internet's current confusion. --Dominic Hardstaff (talk) 07:57, 22 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]
This is an old topic, but I just came upon this page and saw the "uncertain" bit about her birthplace. After digging around, it seems IMDb is the only place that claims Ryan was born in San Francisco. All other sources, including old newspapers and books, state Ryan was born in El Paso. It is possible that IMDb is the only correct source in this instance, but I'm guessing it is not based on the fact that other biographical content there isn't found in any other source (ie supposed birth name, etc.). Since IMDb is not a reliable source for biographical content to begin with, I have removed the mention of it along with the explanation of why it's wrong because of personal records, blah, blah, blah. We should just present information along with the proper sourcing, not go into a long-winded explanation about records and why a source is wrong. If it's wrong or questionable, leave it out.
EL PASO, TEXAS until proved otherwise. IMDb is not a reliable source for actors' biodata. I'll check Ancestry.com when I get to the library (where it's free), most likely later today (February 23, 2016) and maybe I can come up with something definitive. Yours, Quis separabit?06:24, 23 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
UPDATE: According to this YouTube channel, which purports to show Irene Ryan's death certificate (albeit bifurcated into two different sections), the place of birth (1st part) is given as "Texas" and, sadly if true, the second part, which may not be legit, otherwise why make it into two different parts or sections, "glioblastoma" (a brain tumor, which I believe is a pretty lethal form of brain cancer), is given as primary cause of death, with heart attack second. It is dated May 1, 1973 (in the bottom of the second section). Check it out! Quis separabit?06:40, 23 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]