Evidence Baby Steps: Difference between revisions

Evidence is more than information. It is the information we judge, as genealogists, to have some relevance to our research. Evidence is variously defined as “something that furnishes proof;”<ref>''Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary'', online edition (www.m-w.com : accessed 23 November 2009), “[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/evidence evidenc[[Category:Evaluating Evidence]].”</ref> “information that is relevant to the problem;”<ref>Elizabeth Shown Mills, ''Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace'', 2nd ed. (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2009), 822.</ref> analyzed and correlated information assessed to be of sufficient quality;<ref>Christine Rose, ''Genealogical Proof Standard: Building a Solid Case'' (San Jose, California: CR Publications, 2005), 2.</ref> and “the information that we conclude—after careful evaluation—supports or contradicts the statement we would like to make, or are about to make, about an ancestor.”<ref>The Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG), ''The BCG Genealogical Standards Manual'', ed. Helen F. M. Leary (Provo, Utah: Ancestry, 2000), 8.</ref> We review a lot of information. Most of it is not applicable to our current search. What is relevant depends on the research question at hand. It determines what information is evidence and what is not. The information doesn’t have to be correct to be evidence. If it is relevant, it is still evidence. Seemingly contrary evidence may prove to be correct in the end. No genealogical conclusion is ever completely final. Entry level genealogists typically accept the work of others despite the lack of evidence. Discovering inconsistencies in trees, genealogists begin to think about the need for evidence. Still, they have limited understanding about the various kinds of evidence: ''direct'' or ''indirect'', ''consistent'' or ''conflicting'', and ''present'' or ''absent''.

The proficient genealogist utilizes many types of evidence, direct and indirect, consistent and inconsistent, and present and absent. Direct evidence directly answers the research question. Indirect evidence requires multliple pieces of evidence together to provide an answer. Multiple pieces of evidence are consistent if they say the same thing and are inconsistent if they differ. The absence of information can be absent or negative evidence.<br> Using the table at the start of this handout, and using what you learned in class today, set a small, baby step improvement goal. See [[Genealogical Maturit[[Category:Evaluating Evidence]]] for more information.<br><br>

[[Category:Baby_Steps]] [[Category:Evaluating Evidence]]]