Evidentia Experiment – Progress Report #2

5 Generations. 149 Proofs. The Evidentia Experiment.

The goal is to document 5 generations, starting with myself, using Evidentia. The results will then be exported into a GEDCOM file and imported into a clean RootsMagic database.

Making Progress

I have almost finished with the third generation (my grandparents). Waiting for a couple of records from my parents so I can top it all off.

In the mean time, I have started to do some Proofs for my paternal grandparents, and thought I would share what I have learned.

Birth

Don’t tell anyone I said so, but I found this process tedious. There was no conflicting evidence, and I got tired of entering “This evidence is consistent with other claims about Raymond Thompson’s birth” However, Evidentia requires an analysis of each piece of evidence (with good reason) so I trudged on.

The point to keep in mind is that analysis isn’t necessarily complicated. I did use the Age Calculator to confirm that the birth date I had fell within each age reference, but other than that the proof itself was straightforward.

Parent(s)

Proofs for these first couple of generations is really just supporting what I knew personally, since I grew up with these people. Still, its good to have something solid.

Don’t forget to fill out the GEDCOM fields, since we will be exporting this data to another program.

Marriage/Spouse(s)

Oddly, I don’t yet have evidence that my grandparents actually married. I have no reason to believe they didn’t, and my Dad has some information somewhere. Since my real goal is to establish the FACT that they were in a spousal relationship rather than to prove the EVENT (Marriage) occurred, I went ahead and did a Spousal Proof.

That is to say my goal is a proof based linkage.

Summary

Some may challenge my proofs, believing them to be too simple. They may not believe I have done a “reasonably exhaustive search”. I don’t disagree., but as a starting place for a solid proof based tree, I am am feeling good.

I’m still waiting on the Death and Burial records, so I will be moving on to my maternal grandparents next. Hopefully by sharing my analysis and conclusions, I’ve shown that the process does not have to be complicated, at least for early generations.