OnBoard: Newsletter of the Board for Certification of Genealogists is scheduled to publish in September 2017. We’re pleased to offer a preview of some of its content.
“Using Proof by Contradiction to Focus your Research”
Applying the third element of the Genealogical Proof Standard,1 Yvette Hoitink, CG, shows how creating and testing hypotheses for contradictions can keep our research on the right path. She offers a step-by-step example of combining historical context and negative evidence to evaluate three hypotheses for the identities of a seventeenth-century Dutch property owner’s heirs.
“Finding the Truth in the Undocumented Story”
Family stories make our history come alive. Whether it’s sensational tales of family feuds and black sheep, or simply the everyday lives of ancestors, most genealogists come across an undocumented story in family research. Gail Jackson Miller, CG, provides us a framework for critically analyzing our undocumented stories to draw out the truth. She explains how using her family story about the murder of Cotton Davis.
OnBoard publishes three issues per year. A subscription is included in annual associate fees and is provided to applicants “on the clock.” Subscriptions are also available to the general public for $15.00 per year (currently) through the BCG website, here <http://www.bcgcertification.org/catalog/bcgitems.html>. Issues back to 1995 can also be ordered online, here <http://www.bcgcertification.org/catalog/backordlst.html>.
1 Board for Certification of Genealogists, Genealogy Standards (Nashville, Tenn.: Ancestry.com, 2014), 1–2.
The words Certified Genealogist are a registered certification mark, and the designations CG, CGL, and Certified Genealogical Lecturer are service marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists®, used under license by board certificants after periodic evaluation.