Presumptions? I see no other way to evaluate any evidence.  At the very least, we must presume that the material presented is what it purports to be.  Still though, the eminently clear point is that none of us - no one, no matter how experienced - can evaluate evidence in the abstract.

While it is difficult to articulate, clear and convincing evidence only occasionally will be found in a single document. Perhaps, the death date as written by the attending physician who signed the death certificate, who actually was present at the death and did the certificate then or very shortly thereafter, would be as close as we might come to a clear and convincing single source for that date.   Further, while the NEHGS article might be sufficient to be labeled "clear and convincing" by me, you, Ms. Mills or any other person, whether or not some still other examiner would have the same view, and thereby be satisfied with that source, simply can NOT be predicted by other than that examiner.

Then too, while I may need to prove a birth only to my family, I might instead be called upon to meet the tastes of a much more critical person such as a D.A.R. examiner.

"Clear and convincing" (or any other measure of evidence, for that matter) is not like a lightning bolt that suddenly zaps us when we come across it.  It also is not like a crystal, immutable and unchanging, that hangs at the desk so that when we have something before us that looks like that, we may shout "Eureka, I have it!!"  Rather, that measure of evidence is found only in the very subjective opinion that the material presented to us is sufficient under our own rules and reasoning to firmly establish the fact suggested by the submitter.

Accordingly, while the Ms. Pat's Inet site would in no way be satisfactory proof of anything to me other than its mere existence, you or some other examiner might be so well acquainted with and trustful of the research of the person who made that post that the reference would be proof enough.  As an extreme example, would any of us give equal credence to the writings of Brent, Dr. McCarty, and Weynette Haun, as we would to the opinions of someone who has been at research for a month?  Surely not!!  Similarly, would we view the decisions as to proof made by John Bennett Boddie 50 years ago as of equal worth to those of Mrs. Mills???  I can not say for sure, but I do suggest that their standards surely would be different from each other and surely even more different and more exacting than those of some local researcher who has set out to please only his mother and cousins.

In short, only if I know the rules in depth of your society can I even begin to predict whether or not you would accept this or that as adequate proof.  Those of us who have examined hundreds of submissions of evidence perfectly well know that your ideas as examiner in behalf of "Founders and Patriots" as to how some hypothesis must be proved likely will be very different than mine in behalf of our local society.

Paul

Genealogy without documentation is nothing.
                     Paul Drake JD
                Genealogist & Author
            <www.DrakesBooks.com>


  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Daryl Lytton
  To: [log in to unmask]
  Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2006 2:19 PM
  Subject: Re: [VA-ROOTS] When are internet documents considered accurate?


  Paul Drake wrote:

  > I might add that as Past Registrar of TN S.A.R. for three terms,
  > I would accept the NEHGS article as quite weighty evidence,
  > presuming it was written some considerable number of years in
  > the past, and also presuming that the original materials are not
  > now available.

  So...basically it's, "Documentation is nothing without presuming" :)

  Daryl

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