Re: surety Level

One Eyed Phil wrote:
Morning All,
I'm wondering what "Surety Level" the 'reasonable' family historians and genealogists put on their source material?
Legacy has a 5 point level system from 'have not decided yet' to 'convincing evidence'. I assume other programs have something similar.

I use the word 'reasonable' since I am aware that some in this field follow the extreme view that notthing can be proven and even my birth certificate can be fake - my father is not my father etc.
Whilst I acknowledge the above to be true in the literal and philosophical sense, I would give up this pasatime/obsession if I held to that view - there would be no point to it

So folks, what level do you use for a certificate/census entry/parish record etc? What about published histories and other data?

Direction in Elizabeth Mills book "Evidence Explained" would be correct if I am claiming to be a historian or teacher of history and earning 'big bucks' and a bigger reputation from my research.I'm not, I'm just trying to put my family history together for my peronal and family use.

I tend to think not so much about the reliability of any individual piece of evidence as on the conclusions reached by considering a number of them.

For instance one problem is deciding whether an individual named as a marriage partner or parent is the same as a similarly named individual in a previous record. It matters not that the individual records are unimpeachable; if they've been put together incorrectly the conclusion will be wrong.

OTOH if several secondary pieces of information point to the same conclusion then (assuming they are independent of each other) they will reinforce each other. I can think of 3 instances where I've found or been given summaries or partial transcripts of Wills without being able to see the original. In each case the relationships mentioned in them agree with relationships found in indexes of PRs. Irrespective of the fact that neither the summary nor the index is raw evidence that agreement points to the reliability of each source - provided, of course, that I can accept that the transcript didn't influence the index and vice versa.

--
Ian

The Hotmail address is my spam-bin. Real mail address is iang
at austonley org uk
.

Relevant Pages

  • CORRECTION: Military Records in Archives and Knowledge Management
    ... for use by active military personnel, genealogists, ... family historians and retired military personnel, ... United States of America History is provided at: ... Family Genealogy & History Internet Education Directory ...
    (sci.military.naval)
  • Military Records in Archives and Knowledge Management
    ... for use by active military personnel, genealogists, ... family historians and retired military personnel, ... United States of America History is provided at: ... Family Genealogy & History Internet Education Directory ...
    (sci.military.naval)
  • surety Level
    ... I'm wondering what "Surety Level" the 'reasonable' family historians and genealogists put on their source material? ... I use the word 'reasonable' since I am aware that some in this field follow the extreme view that notthing can be proven and even my birth certificate can be fake - my father is not my father etc. ... So folks, what level do you use for a certificate/census entry/parish record etc? ... Direction in Elizabeth Mills book "Evidence Explained" would be correct if I am claiming to be a historian or teacher of history and earning 'big bucks' and a bigger reputation from my research.I'm not, I'm just trying to put my family history together for my peronal and family use. ...
    (soc.genealogy.britain)
  • Re: Real Family History
    ... Thank you Peter- that is precisely what I am trying to show in my Dissertation-that it should NOT just be lists of names and dates but involve social history and also link to local history- ... family historians from uncovering genuinely new elements of local history ... the lives of their ancestors in the light of real social history. ...
    (soc.genealogy.britain)
  • Re: Jesus Christ -- Clashing Biblical Images
    ... is a matter of record. ... One looks for evidence of tampering with the text, ... Your idea of 'doing' history is a rather strange one, ... and manufactured those early Bibles... ...
    (soc.history.medieval)