Use this free genealogy proof sheet to document individual, credible articles that help to form your proofs of identity, age, locations, and critical dates for ancestors you’re researching. In order to link certain individuals to an established family tree, standards indicate that you should have as many proofs of the individual’s important data as possible.
These genealogical verification can serve to validate records and also help to reconstruct the often interesting timeline of a person’s life. Use this form to document ancestry details such as parent’s names found on birth and death certificates, birth dates from birth certificates, marriage dates and documented age of an individual at such times as marriage and when census data is collected.
New genealogists please note: Even if you are very thorough and careful with recording data, you will discover inconsistencies and can later invalidate an article of “proof”. This happens very very frequently. Using these family tree forms is useful because they can be downloaded and printed over and over again.
By definition, your “proofs” should be the most reliable information currently at hand. Birth dates, marriage dates and death dates can and will need to change in your family tree record when you receive new information that appears consistent and more reliable than the data previously held as “proofs”. Death certificates are among the most common overturned fact sources because the individual cannot supply the data, and the critical information is provided by whoever is available at the time.
Download Genealogy Proof Sheet
New genealogists please note: Even if you are very thorough and careful with recording data, you will discover inconsistencies and can later invalidate an article of “proof”. This happens very very frequently. Using these family tree forms is useful because they can be downloaded and printed over and over again. By definition, your “proofs” should be the most reliable information currently at hand. Birth dates, marriage dates and death dates can and will need to change in your family tree record when you receive new information that appears consistent and more reliable than the data previously held as “proofs”. Death certificates are among the most common overturned fact sources because the individual cannot supply the data, and the critical information is provided by whoever is available at the time.
Keep in mind that your “articles of proof” about an individual should be combined with other data to draw conclusions about critical details about an individual. In genealogical research, no one source is proof of anything. Each single piece of evidence must be compared with others to draw what is to be considered a reasonable conclusion. For purpose of definition, the “proof” items entered on this form pertaining to an ancestor are only to be the highest valued, most trusted pieces of information.
All other references on an individual are to be considered as leads. When you’re able to connect several items of data to verify the validity of a source and the information provided by it, the leads can then be referenced as proofs.
The individual proof sheet PDF that comes in our forms bundle have fields that allow you to enter this information on your computer or mobile device, then save those files to share, display or print. Click the link below to learn more!
