Information and Sources

Information and Sources

 

Most genealogists now understand the difference between sources, information, and evidence. Evidence Explained (EE) has provided a convenient categorisation of sources and information, but do those genealogists know why, and what the advantages are over other schemes?

In particular, this categorisation is often compared with the predominant one in science, but is that a fair comparison? Are the advantages afforded to us by EE applicable in that domain? This post will consider such a comparison and suggest that their goals and requirements are fundamental different.

In order to build a reliable proof in genealogy, researchers must classify the type of a source separately from the type of information within it in. This helps prevent them from assuming a source is completely true simply because it is old.

Genealogical source are categorised as follows by EE:

·         Original Sources: Sources in their first, unaltered form, such as an original handwritten diary or a first-generation paper certificate.

·         Derivative Sources: Copies made from original sources. These may be close (e.g. a direct facsimile or scan) or distant (e.g. transcribed or translated). An online tree is effectively a derivative form that compiles information from other sources.

·         Authored Works: Narratives or compiled books written by a researcher who analysed multiple sources and derived specific conclusions.

The information in these sources is categorised as follows:

·        Primary Information: Details given by a person who had direct, first-hand knowledge of the event, recorded while their memory was still fresh.

·        Secondary Information: Details provided by someone who did not witness the event first-hand, representing second-hand accounts or repeating someone else's story.

·        Undetermined Information: Details where the origin cannot be proved or established.

In strict terms, genealogical information provides details of specific historical events, such as birth, marriage, or death. In the more general sense of family history then these events might be protracted, as in residence, occupation, or education. Their common point is that the information refers to non-reproducible actual events that have passed.

The sciences do not deal with specific historical events, but with the measurement, analysis, and explanation of reproducible phenomena. Academic papers are of two fundamentally different types:

·         Experimental Papers: Test a hypothesis and measure physical phenomena through empirical observation. This is systematic such that another researcher can reproduce the same experiment if it is necessary to confirm the findings. They establish causal relationships and provide real-world evidence to validate or challenge existing models.

·         Theoretical Papers: Develop abstract ideas, mathematical models, or conceptual frameworks in order to explain why or how a system works. They (ideally) predict new phenomena or provide conceptual foundation that experimentalists can later test.

The sciences therefore only have primary and secondary sources, which are distinguished as follows:

·         Primary Sources: Provide a first-hand write-up by a team of experimentalists or theoreticians.

·         Secondary Sources: Interpret, analyse, or summarise those primary sources after their production.

The two schemes — genealogical and scientific — are therefore quite different for good reasons, and we cannot say that either is better or worse than the other without examining how they are used.