| Session |
Session |
Description |
Instructor |
| Monday, 16 Sep |
Concepts Fundamental to Genealogical Proof with and without Evidence from DNA |
| Intro |
10:00 – 10:30 AM |
Class Introductions |
|
| 1 |
10:30 – 11:45 AM |
Putting the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS) into its context, students will acquire a shared understanding of what genealogy is and the kinds of objectives, problems, and questions that genealogists strive to meet, solve, and answer with information from any combination of artifacts, DNA testing, and documents. This session’s exercises will address conceptualizing and categorizing various kinds of genealogical and nongenealogical research objectives, problems, and questions. |
Thomas W. Jones |
| Break |
11:45 AM – Noon |
|
|
| 2 |
Noon – 1:15 PM |
Students will learn what the GPS is, what it is not, and how it came to be. The session will cover the GPS’s limitations and advantages and its five essential elements. This session’s exercises will address identifying genealogical cases, assertions, and implications—with and without DNA evidence—that do and do not meet the field’s standard of proof. |
Thomas W. Jones |
| Lunch Break |
1:15 – 2:15 PM |
|
|
| 3 |
2:15 – 3:30 PM |
Students will learn how to formulate solidly grounded genealogical-research questions and hypotheses that avoid confirmation bias and unsupportable assumptions and are meaningful, researchable, and answerable. This session’s exercises will involve writing such research questions |
Thomas W. Jones |
| Break |
3:30 – 3:45 PM |
|
|
| 4 |
3:45 PM – 5 PM |
Students will develop understanding of the concepts that underlie the GPS, their interrelationship, and the terminology used to refer to those concepts. These concepts and terms include sources and their categories, information and its categories, and evidence and its categories as they apply to documentary and genetic evidence. This session’s exercises will include identifying sources, pinpointing information in sources, and using that information as various kinds of genealogical evidence |
Thomas W. Jones |
| Tuesday, 17 Sep |
Planning and Implementing Through Genealogical Research, Including DNA Testing |
| Review |
10:00 – 10:30 AM |
Homework Review |
|
| 5 |
10:30 – 11:45 AM |
Putting the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS) into its context, students will acquire a shared understanding of what genealogy is and the kinds of objectives, problems, and questions that genealogists strive to meet, solve, and answer with information from any combination of artifacts, DNA testing, and documents. This session’s exercises will address conceptualizing and categorizing various kinds of genealogical and nongenealogical research objectives, problems, and questions. |
Thomas W. Jones |
| Break |
11:45 AM – Noon |
|
|
| 6 |
Noon – 1:15 PM |
Presentation of a case study applying the GPS’s elements: “Illegitimacy, Desertion, and Divorce: Using Indirect Evidence to Find Nicholas Mauer” Nicholas Mauer fathered an illegitimate child in Germany, then brought the child and his mother to southern Indiana, where he deserted them. Did he go to Minnesota and begin a new family? Is Nicholas Mauer in Stearns County, Minnesota, the same man who left his family in Indiana? This lecture explores the indirect evidence necessary to make the case that he is indeed the same man. The case study illustrates resolving conflicting evidence, using comparative timelines, assessing negative evidence, applying FAN-club principles, understanding historical and religious context, analyzing and correlating evidence, and applying the Genealogical Proof Standard. |
Karen Mauer Jones |
| Lunch Break |
1:15 – 2:15 PM |
|
|
| 7 |
2:15 – 3:30 PM |
Students will learn ways to identify sources, including DNA test results, relevant to genealogical questions set in specific locations and timeframes. They also will learn how to transfer that knowledge into planning the beginning phases of a genealogical research project. This session’s exercises will involve drafting the first steps of a genealogical-research plan that expands the research beyond the original location, timeframe, or both. |
Thomas W. Jones |
| Break |
3:30 – 3:45 PM |
|
|
| 8 |
3:45 PM – 5 PM |
Students will learn that planning genealogical research is an ongoing activity that involves four overlapping iterative processes—the planning itself, implementing the research, capturing and recording the research findings, and writing about what the findings may mean. This session’s exercises will address planning the beginning phase of a genealogical-research process. |
Thomas W. Jones |
| Wednesday, 18 Sep |
Analyzing Documentary and DNA Evidence Items and Assembling Them into Useful Formats (GPS Elements 1 & 2) |
| Review |
|
Homework Review |
|
| 9 |
10:30 – 11:45 AM |
Students will learn how to analyze information and sources, including those related to DNA, to determine their likely accuracy or inaccuracy and what the outcomes of this analysis process does and does not mean in terms of a source or information item’s potential usefulness for supporting a proved conclusion. They also will learn how to write about genealogical analyses. This session’s exercises will involve practice with source and information analysis and writing about those analyses |
Thomas W. Jones |
| Break |
11:45 AM – Noon |
|
|
| 10 |
Noon – 1:15 PM |
Students will learn how to construct various kinds of evidence assemblages to compare and contrast information items, and evidence derived from information items. They also will learn how to use those assemblages to reveal unrecorded identities, relationships, and events. This session’s exercises will involve constructing evidence assemblages and deriving meaning from them. |
Thomas W. Jones |
| Lunch Break |
1:15 – 2:15 PM |
|
|
| 11 |
2:15 – 3:30 PM |
This session addresses the purposes of genealogical documentation in terms of understanding and communicating the results of source and information analyses. The session also will address the components, sequences, and structures of citations for various contexts, including offline publications and unpublished sources, original online material, and online images of previously published or unpublished material, including sources providing genetic evidence. The session’s exercises will involve drafting citations to given sources. |
Thomas W. Jones |
| Break |
3:30 – 3:45 PM |
|
|
| 12 |
3:45 PM – 5 PM |
Presentation of a case study applying the GPS’s elements: “Using Genealogical Standards to Narrow Nine Hypotheses to One.” |
Karen Stanbary |
| Thursday, 19 Sep |
Resolving Confllicts within Evidence Assemblages (GSPS Element 4) |
| Review |
10:00 – 10:30 AM |
Homework Review |
|
| 13 |
10:30 – 11:45 AM |
This session addresses ways any combination of genealogical and genetic evidence can conflict and how genealogists detect conflicting evidence and determine whether a conflict is meaningful or trivial. The session’s exercises and homework will involve the detection of meaningful conflicting evidence |
Thomas W. Jones |
| Break |
11:45 AM – Noon |
|
|
| 14 |
Noon – 1:15 PM |
Presentation of a case study applying the GPS’s elements: “Joseph Johnson Chase: A Case Study in Rural Upstate New York” This case study shows how diligent application of the Genealogical Proof Standard can solve problems using indirect evidence in combination with unreliable direct evidence. The lecture first describes the problem and tells what is known about the subject. It then goes step-by-step through putting the pieces together, illustrating building a case with indirect evidence. We will discuss reliable and unreliable records; when to be a source snob and when to cast a wide net; resolving conflicting evidence; and the process of assembling the pieces into a coherent argument. . |
Karen Mauer Jones |
| Lunch Break |
1:15 – 2:15 PM |
|
|
| 15 |
2:15 – 3:30 PM |
This session address the ways genealogists can resolve conflicting evidence and possible outcomes when conflicting evidence seems unresolvable. This session’s exercises and homework will involve resolving conflicting evidence where possible. |
Thomas W. Jones |
| Break |
3:30 – 3:45 PM |
|
|
| 16 |
3:45 PM – 5 PM |
This session addresses ways genealogists can write about conflicting evidence and its resolution in the context of an article, case study, or research report. This session’s exercises will involve writing about conflicting evidence and its resolution. |
Thomas W. Jones |
| Friday, 20 Sep |
Converting Conflict-Resolved Evidence Assemblages into Proved Conclusions (GPS Element 5). |
| Review |
10:00 – 10:30 AM |
Homework Review |
|
| 17 |
10:30 – 11:45 AM |
This session focuses on differences in content and structure among the three kinds of written genealogical proofs: proof statements, proof summaries, and proof arguments. This session’s exercises will involve writing a proof statement or summary and identifying the components of a genealogical proof argument. |
Thomas W. Jones |
| Break |
11:45 AM – Noon |
|
|
| 18 |
Noon – 1:15 PM |
This summary session explains questions to ask about your own and others’ implications or assertions of genealogical proof to determine whether those assertions meet the GPS or not. Exercises involve applying the questions to given assertions or implications of genealogical proof. |
Thomas W. Jones |
