Research

Five levels, from a single question to a fully documented family history.

The standard

Research is conducted to the Genealogical Proof Standard: reasonably exhaustive search, complete and accurate source citation, analysis and correlation of the evidence, resolution of conflicting evidence, and a written conclusion. Where a finding rests on inference rather than direct evidence, the reasoning is written out so you can judge it yourself.

The Genealogical Proof Standard. The fourth element is where a family story is most often overturned, and it is the one written out at length in every report.

Where the evidence does not support a conclusion, that is reported as a finding. An unresolved question, stated plainly, is worth more than a confident guess.

How a conflict is resolved, and what happens to the account that loses. The example is illustrative and is not from a client file.

The five levels

The home page gives the shape of each level. This is the same ladder read as a research brief: what is actually searched, how many proof arguments the level carries, what the charts and index have to do, and where the level runs out.

Level	What is searched	Proof carried	Charts & index	Where it stops
1	One agreed boundary — a named record set, jurisdiction or DNA result. Two to three documents transcribed in full	One proof summary at 1-B+; a documented search below it	Working charts and maps only	At the boundary. If the answer lies outside it, you are told so
2	One couple across their whole lives — origin, marriage, household, land or trade, children, burial	One proof summary: the couple's identity and their connection to you	Pedigree chart, surname index	Two of your sixteen. Siblings appear only where they carry evidence
3	One grandparent's line, plus the origin and arrival records behind it	One proof summary answering the line's central question	Pedigree chart, surname index, methodology note	Four of your sixteen. The other three quarters of the fan are untouched
4	Two grandparent lines, with the old country, the crossing and the settlement each searched separately	Two to four proof summaries, one per contested link	Pedigree and ahnentafel, repository list, every-name index	Eight of your sixteen — one parent's side only
5	All four lines, each region of origin and settlement, plus descendant histories in Register format	Eight or more full proof arguments, not summaries	Pedigree, ahnentafel and descendant charts; every-name and place index	At the great-great-grandparent ring

A Deep Line Extension can be commissioned in addition at Levels 1 through 4, carrying a chosen line back beyond the boundary of that level.

Research log · page 14 Eichenold–Wölfing
German origins

Matricula — Rauenthal, Rau K 3 Wölfing baptisms 1826–30 — Hit, 27 Nov 1828

Matricula — Aschaffenburg, St. Agatha Eichenwald / Eichenold 1825–67 — Negative, not in “E” index

Stadtarchiv Mainz 1854 civil births under Wölfing — Negative, no twins

Mainz city directories, 1860 / 65 / 68 Eichenold, all spellings — Negative (0)

HHStAW Wiesbaden, Abt. 223 Nr. 1446 Amt Eltville emigration file — Hit, passport 1150

NARA M237 / AAD 30260 bark Aristides, arr. 19 Oct 1866 — Hit, household of five

Three of these six searches found no records. They stay in the log, as they are an answer, and so no one duplicates the efforts.

A page of the research log from my own family's dossier. Negative results are set in Madder and never removed.

Every level ends in a written research log listing what was searched, including the searches that found nothing — the page shown above is one. Negative results are part of the record, and a documented negative is a complete piece of work rather than a failed one.

What you receive

A report or book, the citations behind it, and the source documents themselves — scans of what was found, so the evidence stays with the family rather than only the conclusion.

Conclusion · as it appears on the page

Catharina's maiden name was Wölfing, not Binder or Singer as the family had it. Her own 1828 Rauenthal baptism and the 1859 Rauenthal marriage both name her mother, Elisabetha Wölfing, ledig — unmarried — and no father. Two exact birth dates carried in both the German registers and the American records, together with the 1866 Eltville passport, tie the Rauenthal and Aschaffenburg Catholic family directly to the Chicago Eichenolds.¹⁴

The family was therefore Catholic in Germany, and its home was Rauenthal in Nassau and Aschaffenburg in Bavaria — not Protestant Vielbrunn in the Odenwald, where three earlier sessions had been looking.¹⁵

¹⁴ Kath. Pfarrei Rauenthal (Amt Eltville, Nassau), Taufbuch Rau K 3, entry of 28 Nov 1828, Catharina Wölfing; Heiratsbuch Rau Z 3, entry of 17 Oct 1859. Digital images, Matricula, Diocese of Limburg (data.matricula-online.eu).

¹⁵ Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Wiesbaden, Abt. 223 (Amt Eltville) Nr. 1446, emigration file, passport 1150 (1866); corroborated by U.S. Customs passenger manifest, bark Aristides, Le Havre to New York, arr. 19 Oct 1866, NARA microfilm M237.

Note — Records access is governed by the terms of the repositories and subscription services involved. Some material cannot be republished, and where that applies it is noted at the point of use.