Primary and Secondary Evidence
Primary evidence
(or Primary Source) are generally documents created at the time of the event. They may be Church Records, City/County or State Records, Court Records, Wills, Estate Settlements, Deeds, Indentures, Birth, Death (see also below), Marriage Certificates, Family Bibles, Census Records or other recorded knowledge by or of the person concerned in any given situation, whether that person reports it at the time, or later. However Primary evidence is a statement of knowledge and may sometimes be erroneous, either deliberately or inadvertently.
Secondary evidence
is a statement of knowledge reported by someone who was not a participant or witness to a certain event. It has more chance of being inaccurate.
For instance a death certificate or registration is primary evidence, often with many pieces of information within it. However if it provides age, date and place of birth, the names of parents, and more, one must consider who gave the information and who wrote it down, as it may contain errors so they carry less weight. We must regard such information as secondary.
Newspaper Obituaries carry more weight because they were written close to the date of death. But again you have to consider who gave the information and who wrote it down.
Newspaper Articles and Published Books are not primary evidence because they generally do not contain sources. However, they can be used for leads to find primary evidence documentation.
Where one has transcribed indexes, it is better to get the original document if possible. There are always transcription errors, people are human and handwriting is not the best in some of the documents.
Ancestry refers to ‘Source Citations’ which could really mean anything. Often this is even left blank! As far as we are concerned we will only consider a pedigree valid if it contains Primary evidence as indicated above to confirm continuing generations.
(or Primary Source) are generally documents created at the time of the event. They may be Church Records, City/County or State Records, Court Records, Wills, Estate Settlements, Deeds, Indentures, Birth, Death (see also below), Marriage Certificates, Family Bibles, Census Records or other recorded knowledge by or of the person concerned in any given situation, whether that person reports it at the time, or later. However Primary evidence is a statement of knowledge and may sometimes be erroneous, either deliberately or inadvertently.
Secondary evidence
is a statement of knowledge reported by someone who was not a participant or witness to a certain event. It has more chance of being inaccurate.
For instance a death certificate or registration is primary evidence, often with many pieces of information within it. However if it provides age, date and place of birth, the names of parents, and more, one must consider who gave the information and who wrote it down, as it may contain errors so they carry less weight. We must regard such information as secondary.
Newspaper Obituaries carry more weight because they were written close to the date of death. But again you have to consider who gave the information and who wrote it down.
Newspaper Articles and Published Books are not primary evidence because they generally do not contain sources. However, they can be used for leads to find primary evidence documentation.
Where one has transcribed indexes, it is better to get the original document if possible. There are always transcription errors, people are human and handwriting is not the best in some of the documents.
Ancestry refers to ‘Source Citations’ which could really mean anything. Often this is even left blank! As far as we are concerned we will only consider a pedigree valid if it contains Primary evidence as indicated above to confirm continuing generations.