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Genealogical Research Standards

0: Do I need to know about these for my own family
history? How do I apply the standards to my own
research?

A: If you want to be responsible in this addictive pursuit, if
you expect to leave behind a legacy of substance when
your days are done - a family history or a report or an
article that will endure according to widely accepted
standards - you will acknowledge that they will help
you with your goals and give you credibility in both self-
satisfaction and peer recognition. This section provides
some simple applications as examples.

Genealogy is all about identification. The elements of
identification are the combination of the ancestor's name
with an exact location and time period: Name-Date-Place
(NDP informally speahng). We can frame or outline the
ancestor's life by obtaining NDP for the major vital life
events - Birth-Marriage-Death (BMD). These events,
recorded on various charts, become the building blocks of
family history, sometimes called the skeleton outline.
As you progress with your research, consciously or
unconsciously you will be forming hypotheses (I think