Happy Holidays to all This article about the work of Elizabeth Shown Mills came through another roots list and is very helpful - especially where Mathias Bausser is concerned! Her system is Preponderance http://www.usigs.org/signal/98-12-2.htm#proof For those without web access here is an excerpt: PRIMARY & SECONDARY SOURCES This method of genealogical research is based on the fact that 'No Man is an Island'. And neither are the women! In fact, the women were less likely to be 'Islands' than the men were. In this method, you acknowledge that in many cases Primary Sources do NOT exist. Some researchers will accept nothing less, but we have to be realistic. Preponderance requires building up a body of evidence, some Primary, some Secondary, and analyzing it for logical conclusions. PROOF is not a document. PROOF is the argument you create, using the evidence you collect. How good is your argument? This is not simple. It is not easy. But when you have built your case, no one can dispute it, because you have literally found every bit of evidence that ever existed about your ancestor, and you don't have to worry about a stray bit of contradictory evidence coming to light at a later date. -- Sandra Ragan Plum Grafik http://www.sirius.com/~sragplum "After eliminating every possibility, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the TRUTH," --------Sherlock Holmes