Genealogists sometimes throw out a variety of terms: primary information, secondary information, original sources, derivative sources, negative evidence, negative findings, evidence and the like. These terms are frustrating beause occasionally they are not as clear as we would like for them to be. Definitions may seem clear but sometimes reality has a way of muddying the waters. It does not help that humans have a tendency to prefer terminology to be black and white and crystal clear.
But like life, much of genealogy is not crystal clear.
That does not mean we should not be concerned about terminology and not try to understand it. Knowing the definition of the terms and having some understanding them helps us to understand records and to interpret information in those records. Evaulation of what we find is crucial as not every piece of information that crosses our genealogy desk is created equally. Some information we find should be given more credence than others. Being aware of the terminology in the first sentence of this post is a great starting point for doing that.
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