Annual Review of The Rules of Genealogy: A New Rule is Added

I published the first six Rules of Genealogy back on July 1, 2014. See "Six of the Basic Rules of Genealogy." This short list included the most famous and basic rule of genealogy: "When the baby was born, the mother was there." I added four rules in a post back on August 11, 2017, entitled, "New Rules Added to the old: The Rules of Genealogy Revisited." You can go back to these two original posts to read about the details of each rule. Almost a year ago on August 2, 2018, I published a new rule in a blog post entitled, "A New Rule Added: The Rules of Genealogy Revisited Again." So here is the present list of Rules:

• Rule One: When the baby was born, the mother was there.
• Rule Two: Absence of an obituary or death record does not mean the person is still alive.
• Rule Three: Every person who ever lived has a unique birth order and a unique set of biological parents.
• Rule Four: There are always more records.
• Rule Five: You cannot get blood out of a turnip. 
• Rule Six: Records move. 
• Rule Seven: Water and genealogical information flow downhill
• Rule Eight: Everything in Genealogy is connected (butterfly)
• Rule Nine: There are patterns everywhere
• Rule Ten: Read the fine print
• Rule Eleven: Even a perfect fit can be wrong

Now we finally have twelve rules. The new rule, Number Twelve, was always so obvious that even I could not recognize it. Rule Twelve is "The end is always there."

As I wrote in my previous post a year ago, "I suggest that if you don't know the basic rules of genealogy, you are probably floating around in a lake of information without a paddle."

What prompted this new rule was yet another experience working with a patron at the Brigham Young University Family History Library where we examined her pedigree and soon found that the entries realistically ended long before the names stopped being added to one family line. I have done this, likely thousands of times, and inevitably, there is always an end to every family line and invariably, the pedigree shows more ancestors along the family line. 

What is an end? Simple it is when the next person in a pedigree line is unsupported by the available sources. This would seem to be obvious, but unfortunately, it is extremely common. It takes some courage to admit that there is no substantiation for a continuation of the pedigree line and it takes more courage to cut off the dead wood, so to speak.

You can discover these disguised ends by carefully examining each generation of ancestors to verify that the sources cited support the extension of the line one more generation.

As usual, each new rule seems so obvious as to be tautological but when you think about it and realize how many of these seemingly obvious rules are violated sometimes frequently in the same family tree, you will begin to understand the need for simple, straightforward rules in the area of genealogy. Another year, another rule. How many more do you think there are?

The History of the Development of Genealogical DNA: Part Eleven: Moving from Paternity to Genealogy

From a genealogical standpoint and ignoring all the social and legal issues involved, paternity testing can be a genealogical research tool. When the legal procedures for using a DNA test to establish paternity are followed, the test results are considered to very accurate. However, no matter how accurate the estimate is considered to be, it is still an estimate. As I set forth in my preceding post in this series, in Arizona the test results can be validly considered if the test affirms paternity by a 95% probability. The important fact here is that the DNA test generates a probable relationship. For the most part, the genealogical DNA testing community seems to dismiss the issue of probability.

If you lived on the side of a mountain, as I do, you might be interested in the weather. This is just one recent reason why I have been interested in the weather since I was a child. But we can all remember a time when the weather predictions were wrong and it rained when no rain was predicted or we had sunshine when it was supposed to rain. As this post was being written, for example, there was a 20% chance of rain along the Wasatch Front, in other words, don't be surprised if it rains and don't be surprised if it doesn't. Weather prediction is still a prediction based on probability. Here is one definition of probability:

Probability is the measure of the likelihood that an event will occur in a Random Experiment. Probability is quantified as a number between 0 and 1, where, loosely speaking, 0 indicates impossibility and 1 indicates certainty. The higher the probability of an event, the more likely it is that the event will occur. See "Basic Probability Theory and Statistics."

DNA testing results are a percentage of the probability that there is a relationship between two people. Here is one statement about DNA paternity testing from LB Genetics, DNA Testing Services, "How is the Probability of Paternity determined?"

The Probability of Paternity is the overall likelihood of paternity expressed as a percentage. It is computed using a mathematical formula that considers all of the evidence in a case—both genetic evidence (Combined Paternity Index) and the non-genetic evidence (Prior Probability). In this computation, the Combined Paternity Index is “converted” to a percentage based on an unbiased assumption that the Prior Probability is 50% (or 0.5)—a neutral value which means that, prior to DNA testing, the alleged father is considered equally likely to be the biological father as he is not to be the biological father. A DNA test result with a Probability of Paternity of 0% means that the alleged father is excluded, or cannot be the biological father. A DNA test result with a Probability of Paternity of 99% or greater means that the alleged father is most likely the biological father.

Do you have more or less confidence in DNA testing than you have for weather forecasting? Returning to the issue of being switched at birth, if you have been doing genealogical research for years, how do you know that each relationship link in your pedigree is accurate even if all the historical sources seem to support your conclusions? When we are dealing with historical records isn't there always some measure of uncertainty? Don't we need to recognize that DNA testing is just another way of expressing the probability of a relationship? Here is one view on the subject of DNA testing from a Scientific American article entitled, "How Accurate Are Online DNA Tests?"

When it comes to ancestry, DNA is very good at determining close family relations such as siblings or parents, and dozens of stories are emerging that reunite or identify lost close family members (or indeed criminals). For deeper family roots, these tests do not really tell you where your ancestors came from. They say where DNA like yours can be found on Earth today. By inference, we are to assume that significant proportions of our deep family came from those places. But to say that you are 20 percent Irish, 4 percent Native American or 12 percent Scandinavian is fun, trivial and has very little scientific meaning. We all have thousands of ancestors, and our family trees become matted webs as we go back in time, which means that before long, our ancestors become everyone’s ancestors. Humankind is fascinatingly closely related, and DNA will tell you little about your culture, history and identity.

Now we get to a core issue. If you review my previous post, you will see that there are some rather strict rules for using DNA test results in court. Part of these rules deals with the issue of the chain of custody. Here is a short explanation of the concept from Wikipedia: Chain of Custody.

Chain of custody (CoC), in legal contexts, is the chronological documentation or paper trail that records the sequence of custody, control, transfer, analysis, and disposition of physical or electronic evidence. Of particular importance in criminal cases, the concept is also applied in civil litigation—and sometimes more broadly in drug testing of athletes, and in supply chain management, e.g. to improve the traceability of food products, or to provide assurances that wood products originate from sustainably managed forests. It is often a tedious process that has been required for evidence to be shown legally in court. Now however, with new portable technology that allows accurate laboratory quality results from the scene of the crime, the chain of custody is often much shorter which means evidence can be processed for court much faster.

The term is also sometimes used in the fields of history, art history, and archives as a synonym for provenance (meaning the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object, document or group of documents), which may be an important factor in determining authenticity.

What is lacking in the online, genealogical DNA testing procedure is a documented chain of custody. If you have a well-researched family tree, your DNA testing results may be substantiated to some extent by your paper-research but there is always a degree of uncertainty. For example, let's suppose that you take a genealogical DNA test that shows you have a particular relative, could you use that test result in court? Not likely at all would be the answer. What if you had done substantial historical (genealogical) research and had supporting sources? Taken together, both the historical research and the DNA test may become evidence. To repeat a statement I have made several times, the extent that DNA testing results seem to confirm well-done historical research, those results are useful in confirming the conclusions drawn from the historical research. However, in the absence of a source-based family tree showing a relationship, the DNA test becomes much less useful in producing accurate and reliable results. Just as a DNA test, by itself, cannot establish paternity in a court, a genealogical DNA test should not be automatically assumed to be correct without external confirming historical (genealogical) research. 

Stay tuned for the next post in this series. 

See these previous posts:

Part One: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-history-of-development-of.html
Part Two: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-history-of-development-of.html
Part Three: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-history-of-development-of_5.html
Part Four: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-history-of-development-of_7.html
Part Five: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-history-of-development-of_10.html
Part Six:  https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-history-of-development-of_14.html
Part Seven: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-history-of-development-of_19.html
Part Eight: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-history-of-development-of.html
Part Nine: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-history-of-development-of_11.html
Part Ten: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-history-of-development-of_16.html

The Ultimate Digital Preservation Guide, Part Five -- What is worth preserving?

The real question behind all digital preservation efforts is determining what is worth preserving. Obviously, the incremental cost of digital storage has been falling for years. It is much easier today to simply be expansively eclectic and save everything. You can buy a 1 Terabyte hard drive for less than $50 and jump up to an 8 Terabyte hard drive for less than $140. The price of Solid State Drives (SSDs) is also falling rapidly. In a sense, we can be digital hoarders and save even electronic trivia.

As genealogists, we often have a hard time distinguishing between a "historically and genealogically valuable" document or item and something that has real worth. For example, I have been writing a regular journal for over forty years. Except for the first few years on paper, the entire journal is a series of files on my computer comprised of tens of thousands of pages. Using that document, someone could write a multi-volume book about my life. What are the chances this will ever happen? About zero. Is the journal a valuable historical or genealogical document? I think most historians and genealogists would agree that it is. Oh, I should also mention that my hard drives contain hundreds of thousands of digitized genealogy files including tens of thousands of photos. What about the preservation of the mammoth journal and all the rest?

Well, the answer to that question is the point of this whole series. Presently, I have an entire copy on my main computer which is backed up automatically every few hours during the day. I then have three additional backup hard drives that I use for specific back up areas. The entire computer system including all of the external hard drives is then backed up regularly to a cloud-based storage system.

Where is the weak link in this backup strategy? The weak link is the paywall online backup provider. The simple reason for this, as I have written many times in the past, is that when I become incapacitated or die, who will continue to pay for the online storage or even have access to it? Digital preservation requires active participation by a permanent agency or individual who will make the effort to keep maintaining access to the digitized files.

This is the main difference between our present system of digital preservation and the preservation of analog devices such as paper books is that my paper books can sit on my shelves for years and except for slow, inevitable, chemical changes, they will still be readable in fifty or a hundred years. Granted, someone could throw the books away but almost all of these books are also likely available someplace else in the world. With maybe one or two exceptions, there are no unique items in the thousands of books I have accumulated. Mind you, I am not talking here about some kind of market value. Some "collectible" books obviously have a dollar value but from an information preservation standpoint, a first-edition book has exactly the same value as the millionth copy of the same book. So a book can just sit there and be preserved.

But before you start thinking about reducing all your genealogy to paper, you need to realize that a privately published paper book is not the answer. Remember, when I talk about a book, I am talking about published material that has found its way into perhaps hundreds of libraries. As genealogists. when we base our research efforts on paper, we are creating "unique" documents. One copy of a paper record is in just as precarious position as one digital copy.

This gives us a basic criterion for determining what is worth preserving: uniqueness.

Now it is time to ask, what is necessary to preserve the digital files on my computer's hard drives?

Digital preservation has two main challenges that are not shared with paper books: device obsolescence and file format obsolescence. Unlike a book sitting on a shelf, a file on a storage media such as a hard drive can become unreadable merely because of the passage of time. This occurs as the devices used to store the information become inaccessible (think floppy disks) or because the operating systems and programs change over very short periods of time (think of an old computer program you can no longer use on any present-day computer).

To preserve the information in a digital file, it must be periodically migrated to newer hardware, programs, operating systems, and file formats as those change over time. 

Backing up the files is only the first, small step in preserving them. The files cannot be "left on the shelf." Every day they sit on your computer, the danger of their loss increases with every incremental change in upgraded operating systems and programs. I have had any number of hard drive failures and it is only because I back up with multiple hard drives and continually buy new hard drives that I can maintain all my information.

Now a note specifically about genealogy. Your genealogical data should be constantly being transferred to a free, permanently maintained, online database such as FamilySearch.org. If you do nothing else, at least your file information, photos, stories, audio files, and etc. will survive you.

Here is a summary of the process:

1. Acquisition of digital files through direct entry of information or transfer from paper-based documents
2. Maintenance of digital files through multiple layered backup systems involving both local and remote storage
3. Periodic migration of all of the digital files as programs and operating systems change or are upgraded
4. Regular and frequent upgrade of all hardware including the entire computer system.
5. Sharing all information with an online storage entity such as FamilySearch.org.

See the previous posts in this series here:

Part One: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-ultimate-digital-preservation-guide.html
Part Two: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-ultimate-digital-preservation-guide_10.html
Part Three: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-ultimate-digital-preservation-guide_14.html
Part Four: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-ultimate-digital-preservation-guide.html

The Ultimate Digital Preservation Guide, Part Four -- What is digital preservation?

Before going much further with this series on digital preservation, it is important to understand the concept of digitization and what is meant by digital preservation.

A physical duplication process such as photocopies, printed books, actual physical photographs, etc. is called an analog process. For example, if I make a recording on tape, that is an analog process. Each analog copy is a unique physical representation of the original. If a book is printed and then reprinted with thousands or even millions of copies, it is unlikely that such a book will disappear. However, as I found out, several of my old paperback books purchased when I was a teenager simply disintegrated from the acid in the paper. The cost of making a replica of a historically valuable object or preserving a valuable document can be considerable. An example of the cost of preservation of physical objects is the efforts taken to preserve copies of the founding documents of the United States of America including the Declaration of Independence. See "The Science of Saving the Declaration of Independence."

If a unique physical object (analog) is lost or destroyed, it is gone and cannot be reproduced. Internationally, vast museums have been established to protect and preserve our cultural heritage.

A digital copy is created electronically by the use of a sensor that converts light waves into electrical impulses. The resolution of the image is determined by the number of discrete sensor elements generally referred to as pixels. Long before computers were invented, photographers and painters realized that the amount of detail in a photograph or painting depended on the physical size of the photographic grains or picture elements. Hence, there were painters who were called pointillists who painted with dots. Here is a small part of a painting by Georges Seurat (1859-1891) showing the dots.

By Georges Seurat - Œuvre appartenant au musée de l'Annonciade de Saint-Tropez, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15239566

Close up, the image appears rough and lacking in detail but viewed from a distance, the resolution of your eye blends the dots into a recognizable image.

The images can then be stored electronically and viewed using a display device that converts the electrical impulses back into visible light. In the very short time that the digital copy process (digital photography) has been available, the number of digital images has grown unimaginably quickly. Granted making a digital copy of a document or other physical object is still a physical copy and not the original but if a document is originally digitally created, there really is no "original" as such because each digital copy can be exactly the same as the original.

Over the years that I worked as a trial attorney in Arizona, I saw the transformation from physical copies to digital copies dramatically illustrated in court rules and procedures. When I first started to practice law, it a document was in dispute in a court case, such as a deed or contract, the "original" physical signed copy had to be produced in court as evidence. As attorneys, we spent a lot of time and money obtaining "certified copies" of documents that could not be produced. We also had to go through an elaborate procedure at trial to lay a foundation through testimony from witnesses as to the validity of the original before it could be accepted as evidence. Over time, the court rules changed and eventually, any photocopy of an original was accepted with a minimum of testimony. Today, all the pleadings filed in a court case in Maricopa County, Arizona (the county where Phoenix is located) are done electronically. This shift on the court rules is fairly uniform across all the jurisdictions in the United States.

Notwithstanding this dramatic shift in the legal requirements for "original documents" many people still think that there is something wrong with accepting a digitized copy of a document. They also confuse the preservation of an actual physical document with the preservation of the information contained within the document. In addition, people obsess with the idea that an electronic document can be lost instantly. They forget that a fire, a shredder or a garbage bin can effectively destroy any physical document just as effectively. What is missing is the need for a clear understanding of what is meant by document preservation for both physical and electronic documents.

Digital preservation is accomplished by creating multiple copies of important documents that are worth preserving in different venues or locations. We commonly refer to this process as "backing up" our data. Ultimately, digital preservation goes beyond backups and shares almost all the different aspects and considerations of preservation with the preservation of physical documents and objects. Both aspects of preservation also share the main preservation issue of access. It does no good to "preserve" a physical document or object or even an electronic digital file if those who need to examine the file or object do not have access.

A classic example of this access issue is epitomized by the United States National Archives and Records Administration. The U.S. National Archives houses billions of paper documents located in the main archive storage areas around Washington, D.C. and in branch archives around the United States. Only a vanishing small percentage of these documents have been digitized. The bulk of the paper sits in huge storage facilities. Obtaining access to this stored information is nearly impossible for nearly all researchers other than those who dedicate years of their life to working in the Archives doing research. Here is an example of this issue from the National Archives' website.

https://eservices.archives.gov/orderonline/start.swe?SWECmd=Start&SWEHo=eservices.archives.gov

Here is the U.S. Archives and Records Administration statement on Accessibility.

https://www.archives.gov/global-pages/accessibility

What is missing from this statement on accessibility is the fact that nearly all the records referred to are only a small part of the rest of the documents that are not on microfilm or digitized on their website. If you dig into the website you will find that there are proportionately few U.S. Archive records that are reasonably accessible by anyone except very experienced and persistent researchers.

The same problem exists with small personal collections of records.  By this, I mean the collections of family records that many genealogists have in their storage areas such as a basement or garage. Not only are these records in danger of loss they are also totally inaccessible.

What is the solution? Well, that is the reason I am writing this series. I will get back to this ultimate question in subsequent posts. But the basic start to resolving these issues is to begin digitizing your own records; every single document, photo, and artifact that you possess. Start now. Do it.

See the previous posts in this series here:

Part One: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-ultimate-digital-preservation-guide.html
Part Two: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-ultimate-digital-preservation-guide_10.html
Part Three: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-ultimate-digital-preservation-guide_14.html

Help The Family History Guide with Pass-Along-Cards and AmazonSmile

https://thefhguide.com/media.html#brochures

Handy, fold-over pass-along cards for The Family History Guide are now available. Each double-sided, unfolded card is twice the size of a standard business card; when folded they take up the same vertical and horizontal space as a business card. The cards are printed on high-quality matte stock.

The Family History Guide is a free site for everyone. We have great things in store for the site, so we greatly appreciate your support in helping family history dreams come true. You can support The Family History Guide by passing along the pre-printed pass-along-cards or also by making a direct donation to The Family History Guide Association. 

To make a donation to The Family History Guide using PayPal or credit card, click the button below. Your name will be listed in the Sponsors List (or if you wish to remain anonymous, please indicate that in your PayPal notes or in an email to coo@thefhguide.com). Donations made by companies and businesses may be tax-deductible; consult your tax professional for details.

How does all this work? The Family History Guide is an extensive, structured, and sequenced website for learning about genealogy and genealogical research. It has been created by volunteers who are dedicated to helping everyone learn about their family history in a way that makes sense. Realistically, the development, construction, and maintenance of the website cost money. The Family History Guide Association was established to provide funding for the free website. The Family History Guide Association is a 501(c)(3) corporation and as such donations may be tax deductible.

There are several ways to donate. One productive and easy way is to use Amazon Smile and name The Family History Guide Association as your donation partner. Here is an explanation of how Amazon Smile can help The Family History Guide.

AmazonSmile is a website operated by Amazon with the same products, prices, and shopping features as Amazon.com. The difference is that when you shop on AmazonSmile, the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the purchase price of eligible products to the charitable organization of your choice. 

Every item available for purchase on www.amazon.com is also available on AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com) at the same price. You will see eligible products marked "Eligible for AmazonSmile donation" on their product detail pages.

It is a good idea to "check out" charitable organizations before making a donation. In the case of The Family History Guide Association, you can find out about the association from the GuideStar website.

https://www.guidestar.org/profile/82-1081685

 As a member of the Board of Directors, I am very much involved with The Family History Guide website and The Family History Guide Association. Please take the time to find out about The Family History Guide.

Invitation to MyHeritage LIVE Conference 2019

Invitation to MyHeritage LIVE Conference

This short video is an invitation to attend the MyHeritage LIVE Conference in Amsterdam, the Netherlands from September 6th to the 8th, 2019.

I have been experimenting with different video media and this video resides on my YouTube Channel. You can see this and other videos at the following:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4cT2_EjTMVVJgaF5Gdwl1Q

Speaker Schedule for MyHeritage LIVE in Amsterdam, the Netherlands

https://live2019.myheritage.com/

The speaker schedule and topics have been announced for the MyHeritage.com LIVE Conference in Amsterdam, the Netherlands on September 6th - 8th. My wife and I are excited to be able to attend this year's conference and I will be presenting two classes.

Here is part of the announcement for the Conference:

The conference is open to anyone who would like to learn more about MyHeritage. There will be three tracks: genealogy, DNA, and hands-on workshops, designed to suit all levels of experience, plus plenty of opportunities to ask questions and meet other MyHeritage users and genealogy enthusiasts. All sessions will be in English.

Here is some additional information about the conference. 

Additional highlights include guided canal tours in Amsterdam and a guest appearance by two sisters reunited by a MyHeritage DNA test. You won’t want to miss out on the exclusive Saturday night party featuring fabulous live music performances! 

Tickets include entry to the Friday afternoon drinks reception, the keynote, and all conference sessions. They also include full lunches and coffee breaks on Saturday and Sunday, plus entry to the exclusive Saturday night party. Space is limited, so please reserve your spot ASAP! Early bird pricing ends on July 31, 2019.

You can see selections from last year's conference at this link:

https://player.vimeo.com/video/299433560?tr_date=20190701