How we tell you what we know
Every fact says how certain it is.
The worst thing a family history book can do is take a guess from someone's online tree and print it in beautiful, trusted prose. We grade every fact by the record behind it, and the book tells you the grade in plain words.
Three kinds of fact, and one we leave out
Documented
We read the original record, or a photograph of it, and it says this. The book states it plainly, with no hedge.
"He was born 8 September 1895 in the village of…"
Supported
The fact comes from an index, a transcription, a published history, or a record that reports it second-hand. The book states it with the support showing.
"The census names him twice." "His own sworn petition says…"
Tradition
The fact comes from your tree or from family memory and we could not confirm it. The book tells it as tradition, never as fact.
"The family remembers…" "The tree carries him as her father, unconfirmed."
Not printed
Links we believe are wrong, such as a same-name stranger attached to your line or a royal ancestor copied from tree to tree, never reach the page. The Case File says what we found instead.
We grade each fact on its own, not each record. A death certificate is excellent evidence of a death. The birth date written on it, often supplied decades later by a grieving relative, is weaker, and the book treats it that way.
Where the paper stops
Every line ends somewhere: at a parish whose registers burned, a county that did not keep records yet, a man who appears in one census and never again. A Hearthline book says where each line stops and why, as a plain sentence in the story. We do not stretch a line past its records to make it longer.
Behind the story, three sections keep the book honest:
The Family Case File lists every open question: what was searched, what was not found, and which record would settle it. It is where a future researcher, or a future you, picks up.
The Legends We Checked takes the family stories that can be tested and reports what the records say, plainly and without mocking anyone who believed them.
A Note on What We Know counts the facts in your book by grade, so you can see at a glance how much of it rests on records we read.
Surprises in the records
Old records hold things families did not talk about: a child born before a wedding, a parent who was not the parent everyone thought, a prison or asylum record, a family that held enslaved people. Before we start, you choose how we handle what we find.
| Your choice | What happens |
|---|---|
| Everything | The whole truth of the lines goes in the book, written plainly and with care. |
| Ask first | We bring each sensitive finding to you before anything is written, and you decide. This is the default. |
| Curated | Sensitive findings stay out unless you clear them one by one. |
Whatever you choose, a sensitive fact that goes into the book is written in the record's own words, without judging the people involved. Where a record names enslaved people, the book names them too.
Living people
We do not research living people. Living relatives appear by name and relationship only, unless they contribute their own words. The Living Edition website sits behind a sign-in, and only the people you invite can read it.