Negative evidence is not bad.<\/p>\n
Negative evidence does not mean something bad has happened.<\/p>\n
Negative evidence is when something you would expect to appear does not appear.<\/p>\n
It takes a familiarity with the records being used and the context in which they were created in order to determine if negative evidence exists.<\/p>\n
In earlier posts about Sophia Elisabeth (Derle) Trautvetter’s date of birth, I realized that there was some negative evidence and I had overlooked it. That sometimes happens with negative evidence: because it’s not written in the document.<\/p>\n
The reasonable question was posted of whether or not the child born in 1807 had died as a child. In reviewing the records, I realized I had negative evidence that she did not. I knew the family had continued to live in the Helmershausen area from the 1807 birth through the marriage of Sophia Elisabeth Derle to Johann George Trautvetter in Helmershause in 1832.<\/p>\n
In reviewing other baptismal entries from this same village, I realized that the pastor would make a notation on the baptismal entry for those who died as children. There was no such notation on the 1807 Sophia Elisabeth Derle baptism. The absence of a death notation on the baptismal record is negative evidence that she probably survived childhood.<\/p>\n
Negative evidence can exist about a positive event.<\/p>\n
It is negative evidence because I am basing my conclusion on something that does not appear–when if the child died young, there would be a notation.<\/p>\n
The determination of negative evidence requires a good working knowledge of the records being utilized and what those records contain. That’s why it’s imperative for researchers to look at records for families besides their own.<\/p>\n
Perspective matters and that’s hard to develop if one only researchers a very small number of families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Negative evidence is not bad. Negative evidence does not mean something bad has happened. Negative evidence is when something you would expect to appear does not appear. It takes a familiarity with the records being used and the context in which they were created in order to determine if negative evidence exists. In earlier posts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}