{"id":491,"date":"2006-08-13T22:18:18","date_gmt":"2006-08-14T05:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/2006\/08\/13\/the-genealogical-proof-standard\/"},"modified":"2006-08-13T22:18:18","modified_gmt":"2006-08-14T05:18:18","slug":"the-genealogical-proof-standard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/491","title":{"rendered":"The Genealogical Proof Standard"},"content":{"rendered":"

When\u00c2\u00a0evaluating the quality of genealogical information and the sources in which that information appears, genealogists are often confronted with conflicting data .\u00a0 Thus, the concept of a preponderance of the evidence<\/a> has been adopted from the legal profession and applied\u00c2\u00a0to genealogical analysis, whereby the accuracy of information and the reliability of the sources must be evaluated in order to come to a conclusion.<\/p>\n

For genealogists,\u00a0the evidence must be carefully evaluated and documented before coming to a conclusion about a genealogical fact or event .\u00a0 The Board for Certification of Genealogists has established the Genealogical Proof Standard as a guideline for evaluating the credibility of genealogical data.<\/p>\n

The Genealogical Proof Standard states that:<\/p>\n

“(a)\u00c2\u00a0 We conduct a reasonably exhaustive search in reliable sources for all information that is or may be pertinent to the identity, relationship, event, or situation in question;<\/p>\n

(b)\u00c2\u00a0 We collect and include in our compilation a complete, accurate citation to the source or sources of each item of information we use;<\/p>\n

(c)\u00c2\u00a0 We analyze and correlate the collected information to assess its quality as evidence;<\/p>\n

(d)\u00c2\u00a0 We resolve any conflicts caused by items of evidence that contradict each other or are contrary to a proposed (hypothetical) solution to the question; and<\/p>\n

(e)\u00c2\u00a0 We arrive at a soundly reasoned, coherently written conclusion.”<\/p>\n

The Board for Certification of Genealogists,\u00a0The BCC Genealogical Standards Manual<\/em> (Orem, Utah: Ancestry Publishing, 2000), 1-2.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, what does all this mean?<\/p>\n

In short, the Genealogical Proof Standard is a guideline for evaluating the preponderance of the evidence .\u00a0 The five tenets of the Genealogical Proof Standard require that\u00c2\u00a0the genealogist find all relevant information, document the sources of that information, analyze the information and evaluate the quality of the information, resolve any conflicts between different sources of information, and come to a conclusion.<\/p>\n

That’s quite a job!\u00c2\u00a0 Obtaining from reliable sources all information relevant to the genealogical question at hand is no small task .\u00a0 Even assuming that one has obtained all relevant information, the next step is\u00c2\u00a0equally daunting:\u00a0 properly citing the sources.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow:\u00a0 Citing the Sources\u00c2\u00a0of Information on Great Aunt Mary’s Birthdate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When\u00c2\u00a0evaluating the quality of genealogical information and the sources in which that information appears, genealogists are often confronted with conflicting data .\u00a0 Thus, the concept of a preponderance of the evidence has been adopted from the legal profession and applied\u00c2\u00a0to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-journal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pyBfX-7V","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}