Last week, I decided to do a full review of Evidentia and I’ve downloaded the 14 day trial version to check it out. According to its author, Ed Thompson, the Evidentia software:
…makes it easy to collect information, analyze evidence, highlight missed connections and feel confident with your conclusions. Evidentia does not replace your current genealogy software, but instead is meant to supplement and complement your research.
On their never-ending quest for the whole story, genealogists of all skill levels use Evidentia to compile, evaluate, and analyze evidence.
I’m hoping it might help me organise and analyse all of the evidence I’m collecting about the various Brown families in Sheffield.
[hr]My very first session with the trial may have gone much faster, had I taken the time to watch one of the training videos first, but instead I jumped right in and tried to figure it out as I went.
Sources
I began by creating my first source – the baptism index on CD that I have for the Sheffield Cathedral. There was no pre-existing template for this type of source and I was impatient, so I manually created a make-shift entry which I will go back and edit later:
Sheffield Cathedral (Sheffield, Yorkshire). Baptisms Index on CD.
Citations
The next step seemed to be to create a citation using the source but I was unable to determine how to use the source that I had previously created. I really need to review the videos I think. Still, I was again able to free form a citation for one of the baptisms:
Sheffield Cathedral (Sheffield, Yorkshire), Baptisms Index, p 109, George, son of Joseph and Mary Brown, blacksmith, born 29 June 1811, baptised 28 July 1811.
Claims
It was then fairly straight forward to add claims to the citation:
Analysis
The next icon on the menu was “Analyse the Evidence”. For this, I selected George Brown as my subject and Proof for the the Parent(s) of George Brown as my topic. The resulting screen gave me a place to analyse all of the evidence. I was asked to classify the evidence as direct, indirect or negative and to write an analysis statement that should:
Describe the quality of the claim and any factors impacting its value. Include any information about its relative value in the context of the other claims for this proof.
On the screen was a button that would generate a report showing the various assertions, their classification and their analysis along with a summary conclusion about the evidence. The report that generated is as follows:
[hr]Genealogical Proof Report for the Parent(s) of George Brown
Summary of Findings
A Summary Conclusion is yet to be created for this fact/event.
Itemized Research Findings
4 assertions from 1 sources were considered in evaluating this claim.
The Sheffield Parish Church Baptisms, George, son of Joseph and Mary Brown, blacksmith, born 29 June 1811, baptised 28 July 1811[1] asserts that George Brown was the son of Joseph and Mary Brown (blacksmith).
The source reviewed was a Derived Record, introducing the risk of copy errors. The information is believed to be Primary (meaning the person providing the information was a knowledgeable eyewitness or participant in the event). The evidence supporting the claim is considered Direct (meaning it adequate to answer the question directly).
The Joseph and Mary Brown family do not appear to have any other children baptised at the Sheffield Parish Church of St. Peter. There could be multiple explanations for this. George may have been their only child or they may have had the rest of their children baptised elsewhere or they may have left the area or one or both of them may have died after George’s birth.
The Sheffield Parish Church Baptisms, George, son of Samuel and Jane Brown, file smith, born 15 December 1814, baptised 8 January 1815[2] asserts that George Brown was the son of Samuel and Jane Brown (filesmith).
The source reviewed was a Derived Record, introducing the risk of copy errors. The information is believed to be Primary. The evidence supporting the claim is considered Direct.
The most likely family appears to be the family with parents Samuel and Jane Brown. Samuel Brown is a filesmith (which could refer to either a file forger or a file cutter) and it was common for sons to follow the same occupation as their father. My George Brown gave his occupation as ‘file cutter’ on all of the numerous documents in my collection. Looking at the other children of Samuel and Jane, there is a William and a Joseph and my great-grandfather’s name was William Joseph. By no means is this in any way conclusive, but it was common to name children after older family members. With that said, none of the known children of George and Ann were named Samuel or Jane, however there are gaps of several years between their known children and it seems likely that they may have had other children who did not survive.
The Sheffield Parish Church Baptisms – George, son of Edward and Mary Brown, farmer, born 2 January 1815, baptised 27 January 1815[3] asserts that George Brown was the son of Edward and Mary Brown (farmer).
The source reviewed was a Derived Record, introducing the risk of copy errors. The information is believed to be Primary. The evidence supporting the claim is considered Direct.
Edward and Mary Brown were a farming family. Since this time period was at the beginning of the industrial revolution in Yorkshire, it is quite possible that one or more of their sons might have decided to pursue a trade other than farming. Besides Edward and Mary, the other family names were Samuel, Joseph, Elizabeth, John and Eliza. None of the known children of George and Ann Brown were named with these names with the exception of Joseph which was used for the middle name of my great-grandfather.
The Sheffield Parish Church Baptisms, George, son of George and Esther Brown, grinder, born 11 November 1816, baptised 30 January 1817[4] asserts that George Brown was the son of George and Esther Brown (grinder).
The source reviewed was a Derived Record, introducing the risk of copy errors. The information is believed to be Primary. The evidence supporting the claim is considered Direct.
Lastly, there is the family of George and Esther Brown. George was a grinder, a different occupation than a file cutter or file smith. While it was not uncommon for the same man to work at both grinding and cutting in the earliest periods of tool making in Sheffield, by the early nineteenth century, these were two very distinct occupations. It seems least likely that these our my George’s parents. The family names include Esther, Susannah, Sarah, John and Mary and none of these names repeat in George and Ann’s known children.
End Notes
1. Sheffield Cathedral (Sheffield, Yorkshire), Baptisms Index, p 109, George, son of Joseph and Mary Brown, blacksmith, born 29 June 1811, baptised 28 July 1811.
2. Sheffield Cathedral (Sheffield, Yorkshire), Baptisms Index, No 1032/page 127a, George, son of Samuel and Jane Brown, file smith, born 15 December 1814, baptised 8 January 1815
3. Sheffield Cathedral (Sheffield, Yorkshire), Baptisms Index, No 1122/page 139, George, son of Edward and Mary Brown, farmer, born 2 January 1815, baptised 27 January 1815
4. Sheffield Cathedral (Sheffield, Yorkshire), Baptisms Index, No 1892/page 237, George, son of George and Esther Brown, grinder, born 11 November 1816, baptised 30 January 1817
[hr]
Summary
While I’m not sure that Evidentia will solve my problems for me, it certainly takes a lot of the effort out of documenting and formatting my analysis and almost forces me to follow the Genealogical Research Process by walking me through the steps. In addition, it provides me with a report afterwards to document the trail I followed. I’m definitely going to take advantage of the 14 day trial I have and try to add all of the bits and pieces of evidence about the George Brown candidates, although I will probably sit and watch the training videos before I go too much further, just to make sure I’m not missing anything obvious.
Will I purchase Evidentia at the end of my trial? Despite that fact that it did not auto-magically identify my George Brown, my answer is still a resounding YES.
