Hi All, This coming Saturday, March 12, is our monthly membership meeting at 2 pm in our library. Our President, Dave Morrisson, will conduct a short business meeting to open the meeting and then Connie Lenzen will give a presentation on "Evidence Analysis". Evidence analysis comes into play when we are trying to piece together our families. Connie says: "Genealogists continually collect pieces of information and try to assemble them into a picture of their ancestors. It is like a big jigsaw puzzle. We first gather the pieces: the home sources, the interviews, the published resources, the censuses, the vital records, the probate records, and so on. As we do this, we notice that some of the records have conflicting information. This is like laying out the pieces of a puzzle where someone has mixed in pieces from a similar but different puzzle. We study the jigsaw puzzle pieces, turn them over and around, and look at the colors and patterns. This is similar to studying and weighing pieces of genealogical evidence. We look for contradictory evidence, which is like asking if the puzzle piece we have in our hand goes to a different puzzle. In a puzzle, it is evident when the pieces are assembled correctly because the picture looks right. In genealogy, it is not that easy. The ability to fit the pieces together is a skill that takes much practice. That practice is called evidence analysis." So, come to the meeting to learn how to evaluate what information you have! Connie is always informative, engaging and I'm certain you'll learn some new tools to help you be more successful in your research. Jan, R-334