[Genealogy] Statements, Genealogical Statements, and Definitions and T-Shirts

Thu Jul 30 18:46:57 CDT 2026

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30 July 2026

Genealogy Update

** Statements, Genealogical Statements, and Definitions
** Genealogy Tip of the Day T-Shirt Sale
** Consultations
** More on Statements and Looking at the Whole and the Parts

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Statements, Genealogical Statements, and Definitions
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I struggle with terms and definitions. In this blog post, I muse on
“statements.” This is not meant to be an edict, but rather an attempt on my
part to work through terminology and definitions in order to make my work
as accurate, clear, and consistent, as possible. I’ve only reviewed this
blog post twice–so there’s a chance I’ve written something that is
inconsistent.

Creating definitions is never easy. And there are situations when spending
more than a certain amount of time on definitions becomes an exercise in
herding cats.

The problem is that some words get clearly defined, discussed, and debated
and certain others get bantered around and used with nary a whit of virtual
ink spilled in an attempt to define them. My present personal frustration
is with “sources” and “information.” We will start with a general
definition and work from there.

I’ve borrowed the definition of “statement” from one used in other
disciplines This is how one usually defines statement in a logic course or
setting.

*Statement*: Something which is true or false. Statements do not contain
opinion.

“Grandma was too fat to raise all those kids,” “Grandpa should never have
had children.” “Aunt Martha should have been institutionalized.” These
items are not statements as they contain opinion.

“Kevin Sanders was born in Ohio in 1900.” “Thomas Rampley married
Christianna DeMoss in 1920.” “Susan Hendersondotter was the mother of
Henrick Svenson.” “Ronald Reagan was on the *Mayflower*.” These items are
statements–because they are true or not true.

“Ronald Reagan should have been on the *Mayflower*” is not a statement.

In math and the sciences statements are “easier.” Either 2+3=5 or it does
not. Either an item weighs four ounces or it does not. Oxygen is required
for a certain chemical reaction or it does not. Statements of these types
are a little easier to show than “Eric Swenson was born in Ostergotland,
Sweden in 1856.”  But it remains that either Eric was born there on that
date or he was not.

When we say that statements are true or false, we are differentiating them
from statements as “Eric Swenson should have immigrated in 1880.”

It seems that statements for genealogical purposes should be more precise
and there should be a little more direction other than that they are “true
or false.” There still is a certain level of vagueness to our definitions
no matter how precise we may like to make them.

*Genealogical Statement*: A precise type of statement involving
individuals, relationships, or locations. A genealogical statement should
either express a single relationship (biological, legal, social, or
cultural) between individuals or indicate the existence of an individual.

A genealogical statement can *express a relationship* that exists between
(or among) two (or more) people, possibly at a certain time and possibly in
a certain geographic location. The time and location are not necessary.
“Susan Smith was the mother of Henry Smith,” “Thomas Jones and Susan Smith
were married in 1830 in Coshocton County, Ohio,” James Tinsley, Jonathan
Fowler and Isaac Rucker were witnesses John Rucker’s 1780 Amherst County,
Virginia deed” are all examples of genealogical statements as they express
relationships. Relationships can be biological, legal, cultural, or social.
The 1780 deed example

A genealogical statement can also *indicate a person existed* in a certain
location at a certain point in time. “Riley Rampley lived in Hancock
County, Illinois, in 1850,” “Susan Jones lived in Chicago, Illinois,
between 1890 and 1930,” are both examples of genealogical statements.

Statements do no contain opinion but genealogists may have differing
opinions as to whether a specific statement is true or not true. That’s
where the analysis comes to play.

Where do we get genealogical statements? From genealogical sources and
documents.

Genealogical sources contain statements that we often vaguely call
“information.”  Information is primary or secondary, but one has to be
careful with how broadly one paints the information brush. The problem I
have with the use of the word “information” is that it’s easily interpreted
by many as meaning all the material contained in a genealogical source.
“Information” is often not really well-defined in research manuals. It may
be easiest to view “information” as that collection of statements within a
genealogical source. Statements in sources are either *direct or implied*.
And, statements are either primary or secondary–just like “information” is
primary or secondary.

*Direct statements* are those that are explicitly stated in the document,
such as when a birth certificate indicates the age of the father is
twenty-five or that his name is William Miller. Direct statements may be
either true or false–they are called direct only because of the way they
are stated on the document.

*Implied statements* are those statements that are implied from the source
and not explicitly stated. “William was at least twenty-one when he was
married in 1851” is an implied statement from the record because the record
does not mention William being under age or needing consent to marry. The
lack of such a statement that William was under twenty-one implies that he
was over twenty-one at the time of the marriage. There are other types of
implied statements contained in documents. Different genealogists may
disagree upon what statements a document implies and their reasons for why
they believe the document those implied statements. That does not change
our definition of what an implied statement is.

Whether we view any statements from a document as true or false depends
upon our analysis of those records, the perceived reliability of the
source, etc. As we research, we extract genealogical statements from
records. And since information is comprised of “statements,” each statement
is either primary or secondary in nature–in the way that genealogists have
defined primary and secondary in such works as Elizabeth Shown Mills’s
 *Evidence
Explained
<https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806320400/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0806320400&linkCode=as2&tag=gentipoftheda-20&linkId=38c8046db2aa9582114b60a98f6cfd44>*

After we have conducted an exhaustive search, we should have a collection
of genealogical statements (which we can classify in two ways “direct” or
“indirect” and “primary” or “secondary”). From those genealogical
statements, we choose those we believe to be reliable and credible (our
evidence), combine them with our logic, reasoning, and analysis and
construct a proof argument. And of course, we cite our sources along the
way.

One genealogical document contains no “proof.” Genealogical documents
contains genealogical statements.

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Genealogy Tip of the Day Sale

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T-Shirts!....and Save
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Consultation Sale
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What is a consultation?

It’s a chance to discuss your specific problem with a professional
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eyes. It can help you get started if you are just getting started with your
research or continue if you’ve reached a point where you do not know what
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specific questions about the materials you have found.

More details on our consultations page
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/consultations-with-michael/>.

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More on Statements and Looking at the Whole and the Parts

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I realized I wrote about “statements” before (“Statements, Genealogical
Statements, and Definitions“).

The reason I feel that there needs to be some sort of definition for a
“genealogical statement” comes down to the analysis. I understand that
information is primary or secondary depending upon the person’s perceived
knowledge of the event. It is the quantity of information contained in one
document that is the problem. Not every piece of that information in that
document is created equally.

A death certificate is the best example of the variation that can exist in
one document. The informant on a death certificate may provide information
on the parents of the deceased, the date of birth for the deceased, and the
death date of the deceased. The analysis needs be done partially in the
aggregate so that the researcher can tell how generally reliable the
informant is–keeping in mind that an honest person can give incorrect
answers if they’ve been lead to believe an incorrect fact their whole
lives. That information provided also needs to be analyzed as separate
pieces as that informant is providing primary information in some cases and
secondary information in others.

Look at the information as a whole to see how generally reliable the person
is. Look at the information piece by piece to see how likely the informant
was to know that one specific piece of information.

It’s a mistake to lump all that information the informant provided in one
analytical pot. A child providing information on their parent’s death
certificate is not a primary informant for the names of the parents or the
places of birth for the parents. The child would be a primary informant (at
least probably) for when and where the deceased person died.

That’s why I think it’s good to ferret out each “genealogical statement”
from the document, so that each statement can be analyzed on it’s own
perceived merits based upon the informant and their likely knowledge of the
specific event.

But it’s also good to look at the overall reliability of the
informant–keeping in mind that they may simply be repeating information
someone told them decades ago that they have no reason to doubt.
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Michael John Neill
Genealogy Tip of the Day
PO Box 17
Henderson, IL 61439
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