<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.5880" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial" bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV> <DIV> <DIV>Michael,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I think your assessment is mostly correct, although I would quibble with how you stated the question.  In your email, you asked: "does my analysis conform to the Genealogical Proof Standard?" Ordinarily, this is a question we would ask of someone's research and analysis of a genealogical problem.  Did the search, analysis and conclusion meet the expectations of the GPS?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Your article asks if census manuscripts meet the GPS.  I think this is not quite the right question.  I think you are really asking: what do I need to consider when evaluating information from a census manuscript?  You hit on the central problems: who gave and who recorded the information?  Did they have reason to know the facts? Did they have any motive to give false information?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I would also quibble with the statement that the GPS "prescribes a fool-proof method: a reasonably exhaustive search." A reasonably exhaustive search is certainly a good thing, but to say a reasonably exhaustive search makes your research fool-proof is probably a bit over optimistic.  Your conclusion, however, is sound: information from any source should be correlated (and hopefully corroborated) with information from other sources.  As I say in an article I wrote for <EM>Family Chronicle</EM>, do the Three C's: correlate, corroborate and conclude.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks for sharing our article.  It is good food for thought.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Jay Fonkert, CG</DIV> <DIV>St. Paul, MN</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In a message dated 11/3/2009 5:22:40 P.M. Central Standard Time, michael.hait@hotmail.com writes:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>This message is being cross-posted on both the TGF and APG Public mailing lists.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I just posted an article in my Examiner column regarding the reliability of federal census records.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I would love to have some feedback.  Does my analysis conform to the Genealogical Proof Standard?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Here is the link:  <A title=http://bit.ly/wEzux href="http://bit.ly/wEzux">http://bit.ly/wEzux</A></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Michael Hait<BR><A title=mailto:michael.hait@hotmail.com href="mailto:michael.hait@hotmail.com">michael.hait@hotmail.com</A><BR><A title=http://www.haitfamilyresearch.com/ href="http://www.haitfamilyresearch.com/">http://www.haitfamilyresearch.com</A><BR>Author, The Family History Research Toolkit (<A title=http://www.genealogical.com/ href="http://www.genealogical.com/">www.genealogical.com</A>)<BR>Instructor, African-American Research, GenClass.com (<A title=http://www.genclass.com/ href="http://www.genclass.com/">www.genclass.com</A>)<BR>National African-American Genealogy Examiner (<A title=http://www.examiner.com/x-8873-African-American-Genealogy-Examiner href="http://www.examiner.com/x-8873-African-American-Genealogy-Examiner">http://www.examiner.com/x-8873-African-American-Genealogy-Examiner</A>)</FONT></DIV><BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>APG Public Mailing List<BR>http://apgen.org/publications/publiclist/<BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> <DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT lang=2 face=Arial size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10">Jay Fonkert, CG<BR><A href="http://fourgenerationsgenealogy.blogspot.com/">http://fourgenerationsgenealogy.blogspot.com/</A><BR>Saint Paul, MN<BR><BR>Member, Association of Professional Genealogists<BR>(</FONT><FONT lang=2 face=Arial color=#000000 size=1 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="8">professional profile at <A href="http://www.apgen.org)/">www.apgen.org)</A></FONT><FONT lang=2 face=Arial color=#000000 size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><BR>Member, Genealogical Speakers Guild<BR></FONT><FONT lang=2 face=Arial color=#000000 size=1 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="8">(professional profile at <A href="http://www.genealogicalspeakersguild.org/)">http://www.genealogicalspeakersguild.org/)</A></FONT><FONT lang=2 face=Arial color=#000000 size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"> <BR><BR></FONT><FONT lang=2 face=Arial color=#000000 size=1 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="8">CG (Certified Genealogist) is a service mark of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, used under license by Board-certified associates after periodic competency evaluations.</FONT><FONT lang=2 face=Arial color=#000000 size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><BR></FONT></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>