Whether you're researching for fun or on a professional level, you will...I repeat...you will come to a point where you will have to review where you found this or that and how it should be categorized in order to determine how much credence you can place on a particular piece of information. As professionals, we not only understand, but virtually live by whether a source is original or derivative, the information is primary or secondary and the evidence is direct, indirect or negative. Now that's a lot for a casual family researcher to absorb, but the principles are sound and need to be understood.
First, you can spend some hard earned cash and take one of several courses in professional genealogical research techniques. But I believe that a bit of common sense will help many people in their efforts to track down their ancestors.
Second, this doesn't necessarily need to be a stressful, heartburn inducing hobby or profession.
Let me explain about the principals mentioned earlier. A "source" is simply where you found a certain bit of information. Was it in a book at the library, a document at Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org, a family bible....whatever. The source is simply that which holds the information. You need to judge the value of the source. That's when we ask is it original or derivative. A birth certificate is an original source because it starts with the mother and, these days, the doctor who delivered the baby. If you get a letter/e-mail/tweet from your cousin to tell you that her sister had a baby on such and such a date, that communication is derivative. After all, she may be wrong! Imagine! The accuracy of a derivative source can be judged based on its distance in time and location from the original source.
"Information" is primary, secondary or unknown based on the degree of involvement of the informant. If you attended a wedding and told your friends about it the next day or 20 years from now, you are the primary informant. You were there as a witness. If, in later years, one of their children informs you that their parents anniversary is on such and such a date, odds are the kids weren't there and they are providing secondary information because they were told, at some point, what the anniversary date was and they reported it to you.
Evidence is either direct or indirect. This has always been tricky for me to get my head around, but here goes. In genealogy, building any report at whatever level...a complete family tree for multiple generations or a forensic genealogy report to establish descendants or simply who was John Smith's grandfather...each bit of data is in itself a research project. You can only answer one question at a time as you move toward a conclusion and subsequently write a proof statement to support that conclusion. Direct evidence is a single piece of data that answers, on its own merit, that single question. Indirect evidence refers to a PIECE of evidence that may contribute to the answer but cannot, of itself, stand on its own as an answer.
Confused! We spend HOURS studying these principals. I'm currently reading the "latest" publication on mastering genealogical proof. It's called "Mastering Genealogical Proof"! It's by Dr. Thomas Jones who has an amazing reputation in this field. I'm also a participant in a study group which takes place in Google+ "Hangout" that "meets" on Monday nights. We discuss the individual chapters in the book and how the principles apply to the work we're currently involved in.
To sum this all up: A professional NEEDS to abide by these principles. It's a matter of adhering to the Genealogical Proof Standards to which we commit ourselves as professionals. For the casual or hobby researcher, they are still important as they act as a guideline to help understand the value of what you've found in your research. After all, there are hundreds...there are thousands of discrepancies in the data we discover. It's very handy to have a standard to measure that bit of data's value in our research!
Questions? Feel free to ask them here or contact me at dave@oldbones.info.
Comments? Please add your thought to the blog for everyone to benefit.
No comments:
Post a Comment