What is Negative Evidence in Genealogy and Family History

Wow that was awesome Connie. Thank you for another great video.

I have a group of correspondences with a triangulation same segment.and I tself position they are children of cousins of 4 degree.all these people they all have in common.that have origins of south asia and origins of the roma.what does it mean? I had my mother tested why.two maternal lines frim my grandmother and great-grandmother are missing.

Very helpful video...thanks so much!!! I had a hard time wrapping my head around the concept of negative evidence - it's clearer now.

How do I find the full text research? I do subscribe to Family Search.

After tons of searching, I just re-found the disc for my Great-Grandparents wedding in 1951, what do you think I should look out for and should I see if I can see any of my ancesters on it. Basicly, do you think it will help in my research, Thanks :)

I tried finding the family search labs site and nothing seems to be available.

My first thought was that a reasonably exhaustive search had not been done. County and township boundaries were still changing at that time. In Pennsylvania they were still changing decades later. I would have researched the formation of counties in the state of New York and looked for boundary changes. I also would have checked if they lived with their in-laws at that time.

Great vid

TIP: Marriage records.
If you cannot find the marriage record for Jane Doe and John Smith, try Searching Jane Doe without a groom's name. I have found earlier marriages for women that were previously not known to me/ the family. Often there are brief marriages from when the bride was 16-25 years old. Once you find ghat record you can search Jane Jones and John Smith!

Thank you so much for this video, such great good advices… as always! ;-)

@Genealogy TV, Connie, what can you tell me about the Rowland Family of Rowan Co, NC?

TYVM ❤❤❤

Thank you, Connie, for that fabulous explanation. I heard ESM's talk last year on Negative Evidence and thought I had a grasp of the concept. This made it clearer.
Loving the AI Tool on Family Search! I had to take a break from it because I wasn't getting my chores done! LOL! Seriously, I have been able to add more information to my research project and learned wonderful stories that are slowly coming out-like my ancestor's home burned down and another ancestor building a cider mill on the property that was owned by HIS uncle and my ancestor. We certainly are living in a genealogy heyday.

Question: Sould I add the spouses of the other children of my ancestors in my family tree?

Hello, I sent you an email about LivingDNA last time. Would you be interested ? 🙂

Been doing my genealogy for 20 years now and like to thank you for all the new tips and tricks you teach. But one thing I wonder is in Ancestry website is their anyway to sort member trees so you can see the trees with shared direct ancestors? Kinda like how ThruLines lets you see how you have a direct ancestor connection. It'd be nice to have that for just all public trees and if you have a shared direct ancestor with another Ancestry account holder. Cause I find myself spending hours manually going thru public trees trying to find other accounts that have shared direct ancestors but most are other member trees that are just side trees of other members.

It is, of course, extremely subjective whether the available evidence is sufficient to justify a negative inference. I will give you an example from my experience to show how ticklish the judgment can be.

The Register of the German-speaking Reformed Church in Lancaster PA records a child Philiip baptized by David Stephan in 1765. No other record -- taxes, real estate, inheritance, marriages, baptisms, state & federal censuses -- makes reference to a German immigrant (or son of an immigrant) named David Stephan. No Germans surnamed Stephan/Steffan were in the area of Lancaster City at such an earlier date, and the Stephan who arrived shortly after that was not a David. There was an Anglo Quaker named David Stephan, but he lived far from Lancaster City in the section of the county that would be partitioned off into Berks County. There are records of his taxes and real estate. So this Anglo Quaker from the future Berks County can hardly be identified with the German Calvinist who baptized a child in Lancaster City. In fact, there is not an iota of evidence that any such German as David Stephan was living in Lancaster County in 1765 nor that any German family surnamed Stephan was living there so early. As Sherlock Holmes said, after you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains must be true no matter how improbable. My conclusion is that the name was a pseudonym. (I did verify that the original document does indeed say David Stephan.)

At this point I need to clarify that this Philip Stephan was baptized on the very same day that is recorded as a birthdate on the headstone of Philip Stephan/Stephy of New Holland PA, Virginia and finally Indiana. All German Stephans in northeastern Lancaster County as of 1765 were closely related to Johan Philip Stephan who emigrated with two young sons in 1737. Aside from that circumstantial evidence, there are at least 500 DNA matches between two known descendants of Philip Stephy of PA/VA/IN and descendants of Johan Philip Stephan's children George, Michael, Peter and Frederick. Thus, if we are to assume that the birthdate on Philip Stephy's headstone is his baptismal date, then "David Stephan" must have been very closely related to Johan Philip Stephan the immigrant and patriarch of the family.

If we juxtapose the fact that "David Stephan" must have been a pseudonym with the high probability that the child he baptized was very closely related to the 1737 immigrant, the reasonable inference would be that "David" was trying to hide that the child was not born in lawful wedlock. A suspicious eye would be cast upon Michael b.1747 and Peter b.1749 as the child's teenaged father. "David" would probably be either their older brother George or Lorentz, making the long trip from Cocalico Township to Lancaster city where either of them could pose as "David" without being recognized.

Improbable though this may seem, I think it is preferable to hypothesizing that the 1737 immigrant patriarch had a brother or nephew for whose existence there is not an iota of evidence in the records of Lancaster County. I feel extremely certain that "David Stephan" never existed. However, as I conceded at the outset, the negative conclusion is only viable if one is certain that sufficient evidene survives that David Stephan's name would have turned up in some document. I feel the evidence suffices for the negative inference, but someone else may feel differently.

I’m curious. The viewer stated they searched the entire county in NY for 1840. Did they search neighboring counties and check county boundaries???

Connie, great idea for a video. I disagree with you about research logs, however. For a potentially difficult search like this, a research log can really help you track not only what you have checked but when you last checked it. You can then check it again later against the last collection update to know if updates were made since you last checked. It saves me a lot of time to go onto the collections that have been updated since I last looked.

I have a grand uncle who died in a farming accident when he was young. I heard my Grandmother and two of her sisters talking about the incident when I was young, but the only evidence I can find of his existence is the 1900 Census which lists his mother as having given birth to 6 children but only 5 were living, and I have the birth certificate of one of those sisters on which she has written that the date was a mistake and must have been her brother's birth date. I have been searching for any records of him since 2003, but to no avail. Is this a case of three types of Negative Evidence? ie. word of mouth of primary sources, census and hand written note on the birth certificate?

Silver Blaze, the Sherlock Holmes short story that was quoted.

Maybe he was a tick mark

the older version of family tree maker allowed you to print out a report of everyone in your index. Family tree maker 2019 doesn't seem to have that or am I missing something? It allows for individuals only? I want to print out a full report of everyone i have added. Can you help? Also want to say i find familysearch more user friendly than ancestry.

Another great video, very informative and much appreciated. I do have a question about another matter...On Ancestry, when working on trees, what is the best way to use the Common DNA Ancestor tag? It basically applies only to persons you have had a DNA match with, right? What about their parents? Is it appropriate to tag the name of the parent or parents (if there is a match to both) as well, or is this too confusing? I understand the difference between Common DNA Ancestors and Direct Ancestors, but want to add as much information to each ancestor as possible. I like to think doing so will aid the algorithm for Ancestry and give us better hints. What is your take on this? Thanks so much. Barbara

I have had a hard time finding a death record for my grandfather and marriage records for him and my grandmother. I have gone to Kentucky and Tennessee Archives and Health Departments, and County Clerks office for both states. He is in the 1930s census living in his parent’s home. He died in 1938, so he isn’t on the next census with his family. His name is on my dad’s birth certificate and I have found his grave. Other than that, I cannot prove he is my grandfather. Would this be considered exhaustive research?

How would you classify a census record that was missing the place where the family lived like the 1891 UK census for the residence of my Grandmother when she was born. I do have her birth registration and baptism and that of her younger sister to confirm the address?

I searched for 40+ years for two of my Great Great grandparents (my mother's mother's mother's parents). G.G. grandmother died when Great G. was 7 (1879/80). G. Grand's father died ca. 1886 when she was 14. I found ONE record on him in a newspaper. NOTHING ELSE!

Great advice! Also remember, archives are constantly getting records donated. While they may not get processed and ready for researchers very fast, genealogists should be asking about archives "unprocessed collections". This is from The Archive Lady!

Searching more than one platform is good advice! I've broken a few walls on family tree alone. And human error in records should always be on your mind when searching. Scotland records has my great grandfathers birth as April 21 1882. And after exhaustive research I found his death cert, parents are the same, location is the same, the year is the same except for California recorded his birth as Aug 12 1882 on the death cert. My great grandmother is the reporting person but I still went back through his childhood, and adulthood census comparing parents, children and spouse, and only at that point could I set it in stone so to speak.

I have one family who seems to have disappeared from... well most records. They aren't a primary couple I'm researching right now, but it's very annoying. They moved from NC to Arkansas... and... whatever Census I am first missing them in... they show up on the farm schedule. I went line-by-line to compare the farm schedule with the population schedule and my family is simply missing from the population schedule. Which is SOOOO frustrating! I don't understand how the enumerator could add them to the farm schedule and forget them on the population. Shouldn't the population schedule be filled out first??? Grrrr!

If I remember correctly, that is (currently) my last record for them. But, as I say... they aren't a primary family for this project. But it would be really nice to know when they died! 😕

I have been looking for parents of my 3rd great grandfather Harvey Hicks. I have found where his wife was from and news clipping suggesting that he lived there at one point... st Lawrence co NY. I know he was born in VT and wife in NY..so I searched 1820 census for VT (thanks for the excel tip), and then looked to see if any of these men had moved to St Lawrence co in the 1830 census and had a son born between 1820-30. I found a Roswell Hicks... but nothing in the 1840 census.. however using famiysearch new AI tool.. I found a reference to Roswell Hicks property in two deeds..one for 1841 and 1843.. suggesting that Roswell was there and property not far from where his 'son's' wife was from. He is the best fit of all available Hicks to be Harvey's father. At what point do I use him as Harvey's father. I have searched everywhere..including local historical societies and town records. I am told that birth records for VT and NY don't go back as far as the 1820s... unless you get lucky.. I have searched for marriage records hoping to find a reference to parents... but again in this part of NY state they did not exist this early... and tried to get church records..but even there the church wasn't there at the time I estimate their marriage. I have two other potential fathers.. based on DNA matches... but.. I suspect Roswell is part of this same family... the facts as I can find them fit Roswell the best... My second problem is finding Roswell Hicks ancestors... because there are not records that I can find... save one... listing him as the administrator of the will of a Levi Hicks... Anyway.. at the moment I have Roswell listed as hypothesis #3... for Harvey's father... Will I ever be able to remove the hypothesis notation for him?

An example of negative evidence being potentially helpful: I need to just find one more item to convince me that a 5th great-granduncle George Goodwin fought at Waterloo. I have him being transferred from Canada to England on November 24, 1814, but lose him on the ship over there. However, I do have a Geo. Goodwin in the online paybook for the 23rd Light Dragoons that began on December 25, 1814, and he was in the port city of Liverpool in the first quarter (12/25/1814-3/24/1815). If my George had joined up straight off the boat, that would make sense. What I need now is a look at the previous paybook that ended 12/24/1814. If Geo. Goodwin is NOT in there, or is only there for a few days at the tail end, then I would be 99.9% sure he is my guy. I am contacting the National Archives to see if they can pull those pages for that final quarter of 1814 for me without it costing too much.

I had first found out about him and his service through family history pamphlets from the 1990s/early 2000s that I found online. I never trust those, so I started researching the details on my own. The one thing I did find that gave me some reassurance the rumor was correct was a mention of it in a Who’s Who of New Brunswick published in 1900. One of George’s great-grandnephews had a mini-bio there in which he mentioned our common ancestor who was the first Goodwin in NB after fighting in the French and Indian War as well as that ancestor’s son who fought at Waterloo. That person was born just 8 years after George died, so while he wouldn’t have known George, he would have known people who did know him.

I have been looking for evidence that my great-great-grandmother was actually married to her second husband. I have searched throughout the Michigan marriage records for 1897, the year the 1900 census has them married. I then called the county seat library for assistance, looking for any additional records or newspaper archives, and they had nothing going back that far. Then, I thought to look for the divorce record in Chicago, where they had moved by 1899. The Chicago Tribune published all court cases, including divorces, so I searched for all Martin v. Martin divorces in a 4-year span and then had a genealogist who knew the county clerk’s system look those all up, and she found nothing that could have been my ancestor. She also did an independent search for the names outside of the paper’s findings, and again, nothing. So, I am currently leaning towards the idea that they were living together and just said that they were wed. She had gone through a really horrific divorce and custody battle with husband #1, so that might explain a reluctance to go through that again.

I'm just beginning, and I feel like I've found a wonderful resource in your videos! Today, I hope to find something to indicate what happened to my paternal grandmother's first husband that no one in the family knew about until I found their marriage certificate. 😮 Thank you for guiding me through this.

What do you do if they changed their last name all their way to the new country?

Where do I locate the handouts

Very thorough explanation- thanks

I was searching the 1841 Wales Census, looking for Anne Roberts, could not find her, so in the keyword search box I put Hendre. The farm was called Hendre Isa, and various spellings of Isa. My search was on Findmypast, I looked at every record that was included with this parameter, I finally found her, she was listed as Ame Roberts. which also confirmed her maiden surname, listed were Robert and Edward Parry, 1841 does not list relationships, but the 1851 census has Robert Parry, brother of the Head of the household, which was Anne. Her husband John Roberts died prior to the 1851 Census, he is not on the 1841 Census, but that does not tell marital status, still have not found when John died.