Document Analysis

Although this topic may be considered a bit more advanced, serious beginning genealogists would be so much further ahead if they knew this information starting out! When we run up against brick walls or just want to know more about a certain part of our ancestor's lives we need to revisit what we have already found. Often a thorough analysis of a document can give us more information or give us ideas about where to look for more information in other records.

Document Analysis PowerPoint PDF

Document Analysis Handout

The GPS or Genealogical Proof Standard guides us to properly collect sources, cite them, analyze them, resolve conflicts we might find in them, and then make accurate conclusions based on them. When done properly any documentation found thereafter will not disagree with or change the conclusion.

To begin, we need to focus our research into a single question. Then search for records that are relevant to that question. Next, we evaluate each document to determine:

Source Type: Original, Derivative, Authored
Information Type: Primary, Secondary, or Undetermined
Evidence Type: Direct, Indirect, or Negative

In class and on the PowerPoint, the different TYPES of evaluations were presented and discussed. Different documents were shown. To determine what the information on the document is truly saying, it is necessary to learn more about the specific record collection to which the document belongs.  Google, The FamilySearch Wiki,  Ancestry's Record Collection Descriptions, NARA, and Wikipedia can be useful resources in the learning about record collections and what information a document may contain and what it means.

Those attending the classes were quizzed after each document analysis to see if they could identify the Source Type, Information Types, and Evidence Types.

Those viewing the PowerPoint will see the answers and won't be able to check their knowledge. Sorry. Try to do it before you reach the answers.

I think the trickiest part is to remember that there may be lots of information, but EVIDENCE only pertains to the question.