Mastering Genealogical Proof

Everyone tracing a family’s history faces a dilemma. We strive to understand and portray relationships and lives of people we cannot see or do not know, but how do we know we have portrayed them accurately? Are our portrayals guesswork? Should we blindly trust the sources we examine and ignore inconsistencies? Or should we mistrust our sources to the point that our conclusions are mostly tentative? Can we determine reliably which findings reflect the past? If so, how can we show others that our results are accurate?

This second edition of Mastering Genealogical Proof, like the first, is a textbook that addresses those six questions. It is designed to help new and experienced family-history researchers apply accepted standards for achieving and writing about acceptable and convincing genealogical conclusions, despite having to use supporting material of questionable accuracy. The second edition expands, revises, and updates the first edition’s content. Offering more depth and breadth than before, the second edition contains upwards of 20 percent more information. Nearly all the examples are new, as are many of the exercises. Especially noteworthy are two of the second edition’s expanded emphases: the many aspects of writing genealogical proof arguments, and the incorporation of DNA evidence into genealogical research and proofs. Both editions aim to help genealogists establish genealogical proof despite the pervasive presence of genealogical roadblocks.