Genealogical Evidence Systems

Evidence-first genealogy

Is the lineage actually supported by the evidence?

Genealogical Evidence Systems is building software that helps researchers identify weakly documented genealogical links, organize the available evidence, surface conflicts, and decide what record to look for next.

Currently in development.

Lineage Audit

Our first planned product evaluates an ancestral path generation by generation. It will distinguish documentation status derived from tree and source metadata from proposition-level evidentiary conclusions based on records that have actually been examined.

Inventory the documentation

Organize sources and citations associated with each person and relationship, flag likely duplicates, and identify links that are uncited or weakly documented.

Find the weak link

Surface conflicts, chronology and geography problems, identity ambiguity, and same-name risks without treating a complete tree or source count as proof.

Plan the next search

Recommend records and research steps that may resolve the identified gap and make clear when the underlying record still needs to be inspected.

Built for careful research

The system is being developed around a simple principle: software should help a genealogist reason from evidence, not turn metadata, source counts, or an algorithmic score into a substitute for proof.

  • Read-only integrations first
  • Metadata-level documentation status kept separate from record-level evidence assessment
  • Transparent explanations rather than black-box conclusions
  • Attention to source quality, conflicts, chronology, geography, and identity
  • Human review remains central to final genealogical conclusions

FamilySearch integration

We intend to seek authorized FamilySearch developer access so researchers can analyze permitted FamilySearch Family Tree information through documented APIs. Some historical-record content may need to be inspected on FamilySearch or supplied separately rather than accessed through a third-party API. The integration is not yet available and is subject to FamilySearch approval.