I mentioned in my post about the GPS (1) that we have to stop thinking of genealogy as a collection of sources. While we are moving in the right direction of thinking of genealogy seriously even though it’s “just” a hobby, the idea that there is a magic number of sources we need to have to prove something still prevails.

If we want to know about someone’s existence, we usually strive to have records of their birth, marriage and death. How many should we have? If we are to follow the GPS our goal as genealogists is to do reasonably exhaustive research. Reasonably exhaustive research means that there is never an answer to how many is enough that applies to every situation, because a specific amount of records in one situation might be impossible to find, whereas in another it hasn’t even scratched the surface of what’s available. It requires that you make every effort to find a record for what is available for the time and place you are researching. It also means that there are a lot more questions to ask than how many is enough.

Do you have conflicting sources? Different dates or places? Have you figured out why they are different? Have you decided why one source might be better than the other? Have you considered what constitutes “proof”? (2) What is your goal in having “enough” sources?

Rather than quantity, we need to consider the quality of the sources. Are they original records? (3) It’s also important to consider whether these sources are all independent of each other. Who is the source of the source? If my great-aunt wrote me a letter telling me a fact that she knew from a record she had found, and someone wrote a book using that same fact, and I have also found that record, I don’t have three sources, I have a source that’s been written about in three ways. Writing a citation (4) is a good way to analyze your source.

Another important consideration is the question of identity, which can be very tricky especially when dealing with common names. How do I know that the John Doe that I have birth, marriage and death records for is the same John Doe in all three records? How do I know I am not mixing him up with another John Doe who lived in the same place/time? How do I know that the John Doe in this record is the same person as my ancestor John Doe? For the record, this is a mistake I have made myself – there are two Thomas Garners who both married Hannahs living in the same place at the same time. Thankfully the GRO recorded maiden names on birth records or I would still be researching the incorrect line. Even with this evidence there are still many trees out there with the incorrect Hannah! The NGSQ has published many, many articles written by people correcting mistakes where two people have been merged incorrectly or have been confused for the other. Given how common these errors are, how can you be sure that you have not made a similar error?

If It is also possible that new sources will pop up, some of which may conflict with sources we currently have, starting us all over again on the path of evaluating, analyzing, and comparing sources. If we have decided that we have “enough” sources, we will not make the effort to research these new sources when they come up.

So how many is enough? A number makes for an easy answer, but nothing in genealogy is that simple. If it were, it wouldn’t be as interesting.

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1) Jennifer Wiebe, “The GPS: A Recipe for Success,” Jennealogie (https://maltsoda.wordpress.com/2020/05/08/the-gps-a-recipe-for-success/ : accessed 5 August 2021).

2) Jennifer Wiebe, “Sources, Evidence and Proof,” Jennealogie (https://maltsoda.wordpress.com/2019/07/12/sources-evidence-and-proof/ : accessed 5 August 2021).

3) Jennifer Wiebe, “Derivative vs. Original Sources,” Jennealogie (https://maltsoda.wordpress.com/2019/10/17/derivative-vs-original-sources/ : accessed 5 August 2021).

4) Jennifer Wiebe, “Cite Your Sources,” Jennealogie (https://maltsoda.wordpress.com/2019/05/24/cite-your-sources/ : accessed 5 August 2021).