Sourcing challenges: assumptions

There's an old saying about assumptions, and while it may not be exactly true, the fact remains that assumptions can be very dangerous things.  In any genealogical compilation, assumptions have been made - some explicitly, however, many of the assumptions are implicit.  Many of the assumptions that are made are not even necessarily realized by the compiler.

For example, let's say one source indicates that John and Karen had a child named Joe.  First of all, usually the source doesn't explicitly identify that John is a male and Karen is a female.  That's an assumption (although a reasonable one) based on the names of those people and the surnames of the children.  Secondly, even if no further information is given about Joe, most people will happily record the information in their records as though Joe is a male, and while Joe is commonly a male name, there could be errors in the source, and perhaps "Joe" was "Jo", or maybe Joe is actually a female.

The second point is that the source does not state that John and Karen as married, and while this is probably true, it is also typical that people will assume that is the case within their transcription of the source.  The quick and easy assumptions continue to pile up.

Imagine now that the source has a listing of children, and the first child is listed as christened in Holy Church, New Kent County, Virginia.  The second child is listed as christened in Holy Church, and the third as well.  Again, there are quick assumptions made that the second child and third child were christened in the same Holy Church (the one in New Kent County, Virginia).

The thing is, assumptions are made because they appear reasonable.  It's only when you find out conflicting information that the assumption starts to show flaws.  One of the goals of the Genealogy Project is to explicitly identify the assumptions.  Part of the way this is done is through the fact rating approach, and partly through the use of additional fields and notes.

At the risk of getting highly technical, the next few posts will deal with some of the more common assumptions and sourcing challenges, and how they are handled within the Genealogy Project.