16 May 2015

One Record Is Not Proof

It's hard to boil down genealogical "proof" into one short tip of the day, but one document by itself is usually not considered "proof" of anything. One document may contain evidence in support of a conclusion, but it's important to remember that any one document can easily be incorrect.

Proof, in the genealogical sense, is usually considered to be the written summary of the conclusion that is reached when a body of evidence (statements taken from individual documents) have been analyzed.

1 comment:

  1. I would think it would depend on the one record found. When you get back far enough, one may be all you can find. If it is a Catholic Church record, I would count it as dependable. A newspaper clipping no so much.

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