What Happens When New Evidence Changes What I Thought I Knew? | AF-1327

There’s a part of genealogy that I think is harder than reaching a conclusion in the first place: changing one.

Once I’ve worked on a person for a while, the dates, places, relationships, and records begin to feel settled. Then a new record appears and doesn’t cooperate. A probate file may name a different parent, or a church register may give an age that makes an earlier identification difficult to defend.

In this episode, I look at how I reopen a conclusion, weigh the new evidence, correct the family tree, and preserve the reasoning behind the change. Losing a weak answer can still be progress—even when the new record leaves me with more questions.

Podcast Notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/new-evidence-genealogy/

Ancestral Findings Podcast: https://ancestralfindings.com/podcast

This Week’s Free Genealogy Lookups: https://ancestralfindings.com/lookups

Genealogy Giveaways: https://ancestralfindings.com/category/giveaways/

Check out this episode!

How Much of My Family Tree Depends on My Own Judgment? | AF-1326

The longer I work in genealogy, the more I realize something about family tree research: a family tree isn’t simply something I find. I build it. Records give me names, dates, places, relationships, occupations, witnesses, neighbors, signatures, and dozens of other clues, but the records don’t come with instructions telling me exactly where every piece belongs.

That means I’m making decisions all the time. I decide whether the John Smith in one census is the same John Smith in the next, whether conflicting birth years can describe the same person, and whether a parent-child relationship has enough support to enter as a conclusion rather than a possibility.

In this episode, I look at how we weigh conflicting evidence, test our assumptions, and preserve the reasoning behind the connections in our family trees.

Podcast Notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/how-much-of-my-family-tree-depends-on-my-own-judgment/

Ancestral Findings Podcast: https://ancestralfindings.com/podcast

This Week’s Free Genealogy Lookups: https://ancestralfindings.com/lookups

Genealogy Giveaways: https://ancestralfindings.com/category/giveaways/

Check out this episode!