This was in Rootsweb Review--I know that each of you as subscribers to a rootsweb list get this newletter, but I found the following article very interesting. EVALUATING EVIDENCE by Brian Bonner Mavrogeorge <[email protected]> The Learning Company When did grandpa die? The family Bible has May 31st, his tombstone June 1st, the death certificate June 1st, and the Civil War pension application has May 31st. Apply the rules of genealogical evidence: consistency, directness, and origin (CDO). Is the evidence consistent with what already is known -- support it, refute it, or is it neutral? Is the evidence a direct statement of fact or implied? How did the evidence originate -- was it recorded at the same time as the event by a witness, or later from second-hand knowledge? All of this evidence is direct. The Bible supports May 31st, but who wrote it? The tombstone refutes it; who told the stonecutter? The official record refutes it, but is secondary evidence from a non-witness. The pension file is the best of the evidence. It supports the date, is direct, and although it is secondary (recorded at a later date) it contains information from his wife and doctor who were present at the death. Using Ultimate Family Tree <http://www.uftree.com/> you can record each piece of evidence; your assessment of each piece's consistency, directness, and origin; and 65,000 characters of text evaluating your evidence. Now what do you suppose the Mortality Schedule says? An infomercial from The Learning Company .. Carol P. Martoccia .. 903 East Fifth Street .. Greenville, NC 27858 .. Pridgen Home Page: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/6297 .. Pridgen Archives: http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl