Does anyone have evidence whether named charitable donations reported in the press were a guarantee that the donor was actually in Hong Kong at the date of giving? I gather that named floral tributes for funerals were no guarantee that the sender was actually in the colony at the time of the funeral. Perhaps a charitable donation attributed to a particular person was not a guarantee of their presence in the colony. I'm particularly thinking of small contributions to various war funds during WW1 attributed to individual members of my family whom I thought were in England at the time, but I coiuld be wrong about that.
No guarantee is the short
No guarantee is the short amswer. In fact the person might not be on this planet at all: meaning family members can make posthumous donations on behalf of dead family members, spouses etc.
Not there at all
Thanks David. Another clue goes into the bin then.
But you have to take things
But you have to take things in context - my answer was pedantic. If you go by probability they are probably nearby overwhelmingly. I am a fan of probability. With family history if I find at least 3 separate sturdy supporting points (like three legs of a stool) I am happy (generally) that is good enough to be 'fact' for some things you can never be sure of. Sorry for all the qualifiers(!)
Some of my answers are deliberately pedantic and as precise as possible when I post just so that I can make that one leg of the stool to be as sturdy as possible, which might later on help answer some future question. For example if I know something happened temporally, I would try to give the most precise answer to the nearest century, decade, year, month, day, hour, minute, second etc until I can't be more precise. Same for location - continent, country, region/parish, street/road, number, building, floor of building, which room on that floor in the building...etc.
I'm used to and comfortable dealing with probability and uncertainty so I guess what I am saying is I prefer as much clarity as possible when dealing with uncertainity so that I can make the most informed decision. Conclusion reached is only as good as what data it's based on.
I can't believe I just wrote all that (!) and is probably off topic (!)