Are there two or more relationships in a row in WikiTree that meet the Genealogical Proof Standard?

Question

Can you identify two or more consecutive parent / child relationships (with sufficient evidence on their WikiTree profiles) which you believe most certified genealogists would agree meets the Genealogical Proof Standard?

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Genealogical_Proof_Standard

Thanks and sincerely, Peter

Comments

Of course there are! Of course there are lots that don't.

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It did make me smile just a little that the linked Genealogical Proof Standard article only cites one source and does not cite individual page numbers of anything in the book it references for all the different facts presented on the webpage. It's not really a criticism of the webpage as it presents good 'food for thought' but the page itself seems to (sensibly) follow the spirit of the standard it promotes rather than being bound by it's own rather exact directives.

Answer 1

Not sure exactly what you are looking for Peter. I would hope most of the research on my own computer comes close.

This is an example of a profile I worked on over the last week that may be close.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Allen-14128

of course every time I come back to a profile I worked on a few months earlier I always seem to find something I missed earlier or that was not worded as well as I originally thought. Articulating the facts can sometimes be harder than sourcing them.

Here is her daughters profile which I am much less satisfied with and needs to be converted over to inline citations and the sources better articulated.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Knott-337

Then it's a matter of what to work on next. I estimate it takes at least 10 hours to craft a short bio with say 20 facts and 20 sources. In the case of Harriet it comes down to deciding whether to spend the next few hours improving her bio or adding her father that I have sourced this week but not added to wikitree yet.

I would also add that whilst I fully support the spirit of things like the genealogical proof standard following it to the letter can get a bit silly. You might want say that someone has 6 brothers and 4 sisters in a biography. To follow the standard fully you must be exhaustive, so if you might have a birth record for all 10 siblings and have them on 6 census returns that confirm their birth place and 10 obituaries as well so if you are following the guidelines to the letter of the law that's 70 citations for a sentence as short as 'she was one of nine siblings'. If you want to included other sources like christenings to be fully exhaustive you can soon be approaching 100 citations for a 6 word sentence. That's why I think the spirit of some of these standards is more important than the full directive.

Comments

I tend to put a link to the sibling's/child's own profile.  Looking at it, it probably does come down to 100 citations - but they are spread among the siblings/children that they belong to.

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I am reworking these a little at the moment to get them closer to the standard.

Answer 2

Thanks Peter for posting the link to the Genealogical Proof Standard.  It's good to be reminded of the sorts of process we should strive to when working on profiles, particularly pre-1700 or pre-1500 ones.

Having said that I'm not sure I can nominate particular profiles, though I think some of the profiles for early immigrants to North America, where the first few generations are particularly well researched might qualify.

Answer 3

I would agree with Earl's statement that what counts is the spirit of the standard. I am working in an area where digitized images of all existing church books are available. I am only linking the entries for birth, marriage, and death on an individual profile. The birth entries reference the parents so I'm taking the liberty not to mention children in the bio and expect instead that people follow the link to a child in order to get the source for the child. If that makes the profiles I'm creating not up to the Genealogical Proof Standard it would be very easy for somebody who loves busywork to copy all the source information from the children to the parent profile. I'd rather spend my time doing more research.

Comments

Hi Peter, I was certified as a genealogist before there were computers and still seek at minimum 20 or more citations for a person.  This includes newspaper articles and many other assorted items.  I also agree with Earl, it is the spirit behind the find.  Anything is game in the hunt for treasure for a member of the family; from a photo to a court document to the jumping off point of a census or a city directory.  Keep your searches fun and exciting, and don't forget to cite a history book that may have your ancestor's name in it, or a town celebration pamphlet.  In 1960, I rode in my great grandfather's car in the Veteran's parade: the Stanley Steamer with his invented wheels all shiny, and I saved the pamphlet in my diary.  Yes, I kept a diary at the age of 4 of whole family and always  have.  They will all be a great source for my son that will take over.  Cite as many sources as you can, and enjoy.

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Good luck with finding 20 sources for someone born in the 17th century.