What tools exist for collecting and managing evidence?

Question

There are lots of standalone software packages as well as websites which appear to be primarily based on a pedigree view - start from me and work my way back. These systems seem to take the view that there is one unique known truth, but this is often not that case. They do not appear to handle the management of information which is not (yet) attached to an individual particularly well.

Take the example where I have a marriage witnessed by a cousin - I know there is a cousin, but have no way to relate the individual without making some assumptions/guesses.

Are there any good systems that take an evidence based view, where I can enter all the information I have and then draw my conclusions to produce a pedigree rather than producing a pedigree with source citations hanging off it?

Answer 1

Check out Clooz -- it may be exactly what you are looking for. It was originally developed by Elizabeth Kelley Kerstens, CG, of Ancestor Detective, LLC. She transferred ownership to Ancestral Systems LLC last year. They just released a major upgrade from version 2 to 3 this summer. Version 3.1 was just released last month.

"Clooz 3.1 is the premier research assistance tool and electronic filing cabinet for systematically organizing and storing all of the clues to your ancestry that you have been collecting over the years."

Source: http://clooz.com/features.shtml

Answer 2

Evidentia which has recently been released claims to be Source Centric Genealogy Software :

that supports your research by guiding you through the Genealogical Proof Standard, the standard by which acceptable genealogical conclusions are judged.

Answer 3

To answer this, I would have to ask a question first, which is: How do YOU define a GOOD evidence based system? Do you need something to record data that you read in censuses and BMD records? Do you want it to support reasoning? Do you want it to generate proper citations? What is it that YOU want it to do?

I for myself can think up a system with two tables, where one refers to sources, i.e. author, title, page and record numbers, and so forth, and the other mentions all the persons that you found in that source, and their roles. You can use these tables to store all the names you found, and if I were to have a dream app, it would be a button in my browser, that would automatically clip a record from a site like Ancestry or FamilySearch, and fill all entries for me. And as far as I know, that application does not yet exist.

With a system like this, you can browse through all recorded names, and when you decide that a name belongs to your tree, you add it to a classic tree based genealogy program, and record the person ID from that program in the person table. I have no way to automate that yet, but this is how my dream system would probably work for this.

Answer 4

Have you looked at gramps? I haven't used it in exactly the manner that you're suggesting, but it seems flexible enough that you could amass evidence and then build your pedigree around it.

I have some "loose connections" -- people that I think are probably connected, and some evidence related to them, but I don't have them linked to me (yet?). Gramps seems content to let those people -- and their notes, references, etc -- sit in the database alongside my confirmed ancestors without any problem. When I can figure out how they fit into the bigger picture, I can link them to a particular family. (E.g. confirm that Pierre was indeed the father of Wilfrid.) Or if I discover that a given person is really an alias for a known ancestor, I can merge them -- preserving the facts that I know about both people, their relationships, and retaining the alias as an alternative name. I've had both of these situations occur at least a couple of times.

Answer 5

There are several programs that allow you to enter information[1] and create, even associate unrelated or only possibly related individuals.

• Recording information. In most cases, entering information is a matter of entering details using pre-established or custom event tags and duplicates of same, and then entering the appropriate source/citation information. Most programs limit the highly structured event information you can enter to names, dates and places, with additional details placed in notes/sentences. Terminology varies by program, but to my knowledge, countless programs support this recording information feature.
• Associating unrelated persons (Associates). Gramps, The Master Genealogist (TMG), GenBox, RootsMagic and others allow associates of persons who are and are not somehow precisely related. In most cases, these persons are associated or linked by means of an event/tag. Terminology and functionality about this feature may vary program to program.

In your example, you mention the marriage [of someone linked/related in your tree] being witnessed by a cousin, whose more precise relationship is unknown.[2] The "associate" feature would allow you to enter that person to your family tree and link them as a witness/cousin to the marriage event of your known relation.

I didn't quite follow the line, "rather than producing a pedigree with source citations hanging off it." It seems to me that any entry you make to your database should be sourced, whether it is information or evidence. Ditto, regardless of whether all the individuals in your tree are precisely related or not related at all.

[1] I used the term information here, because in this context, it seems important to differentiate between information and the conclusion oriented "evidence."

[2] Although you didn't comment accordingly, the claim that the witness was a cousin left me in want of the reference to support your claim of that relationship.

Answer 6

Custodian 3 is a program that was developed to support a British based One Name Study. It differs from Evidentia and GenQuiry which are based on the American Genealogical Proof Standard.

A wide variety of programs that are not genealogy specific are used in the course of research, so I wonder if any single program can perform all aspects of research.

Answer 7

GenQuiry, which I am in the process of developing, may address some of your requirements.