That said, my point here is a bit of heresy. Michael Hait started the wheel's turning with his post What is a conclusion?. Russ Worthington chimed in with When to enter data into your genealogy software?. Then Randy Seaver posted Events, Assertions, Evidence, Fact, Sources, Analysis, Conclusions, Software, Oh My! Read them all.
After reading Randy's post I revisited Michael's and read the comments. When I got to Martin's I cheered.
"Most ages do not agree visa-vis the census. Do we really need to GPS [Genealogical Proof Standard] every single person, or can we just conclude that ages in censuses vary? Genealogy is proving relationships. I can understand that proving a relationship might incur the GPS, but every fact or event?"Amen. Maybe it's because much of my research involves 18th and early 19th c. frontier areas where few records were kept. Maybe it's because I am not a genealogist, but a family historian and an historian by training. Maybe it's because I'm comfortable with chaos and confusion. But I do not have the need to prove every "fact" as Hait defines them. I am content to know my research subjects were born, to learn as much as I can about their lives and relationships, and that they died. I can live with conflicting information as to specific dates and places.
And frankly (hold on to your hats here), I don't need death certificates or birth certificates for the people I've known in my life. Someone else further down the line can hunt for those if they wish. I'm perfectly comfortable stating a birth or death date based on my personal knowledge.
I'm a big picture gal. Give me the overview, the route, the story. I want every detail I can find, but I'm not going to sweat it if a death certificate and marriage license differ on birth dates. If those differences suggest the documents are not for the same person, we can talk. If not, I'm moving on. It doesn't change the relationships.
I'm not going to obsess over each fact or event or assertion. Just as long as you don't tell me the Mulkey marker proves Jonathan's wives. Them's fighting words.
