On Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:01:40 -0800, Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> wrote: >On Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:06:43 GMT, Eagle@bellsouth.net (J. Hugh Sullivan) >declaimed the following in soc.genealogy.computing: > >> 2: a tentative assumption made in order to draw out and test its >> logical or empirical consequences > > <snip> >> >> How does one do any of those for most families prior to about 1900 >> because there is seldom, if ever, a way to contest recorded entries >> since additional eveidence will probably never be available. >> >> If you can't test the truth/accuracy seems like recorded statements >> must be accepted as fact thus no longer hypotheses. >> > Lack of evidence of proof does not constitute proof. I wish it did. >The matter >remains a hypothesis. And if one wants to rather strict, lots of >corroborating evidence will only promote it to a theory <G> > > Heck -- I could make the claim that the official birth certificate, >in my firesafe, of one "Dennis Lee James Bieber" refers to me is only a >hypothesis (after all, maybe the hospital had a baby swap <G>) So, how do you prove you exist if I think everyone who says you do is lying? 8-) Hugh WA4QZU > Wulfraed Dennis Lee Bieber KD6MOG