Twice in 2024, I will give a presentation on identifying the birth date and parents of Margareta Andersdotter (1752-1830) in Sweden.[1] I try to focus on the methodologies used and use the story of discovery as the vehicle to illustrate those methodologies, a little twist of emphasis from most case study presentations.
While working on the syllabus, I thought about a recurring question from the Certification Discussion Group Facebook group: “what technique am I using?” I never felt I answered the question well, so I thought I would use the writing of the syllabus as an example to do some self-education. I admit, I am not sure I have it right.
The Board for Certification of Genealogists outlines three acceptable types of techniques for submission of portfolio element no. 5, the Case Study, in the Application Guide. Whichever technique is chosen it must resolve “a significant problem of relationship or identity that cannot be resolved from uncontested direct evidence.” A footnote is associated with the word “identity’: “An identity problem typically involves distinguishing between same named people. It does not mean you can summit a study about a single identifying characteristic of a person such as their date or place of birth.”
- Assembling indirect or negative evidence, or a combination of the two techniques;
- Resolving a conflict between two or more items of direct evidence; and
- resolving conflict between direct evidence and indirect or negative evidence.
Margareta’s father, Anders, was identified in the Swedish tax records, but the mother was unnamed. Anders married Anne Marie Ericsdotter Beckman in 1750. Four children are siblings or half siblings and born to Anders and Anne Marie in Hishult parish. Many researchers had Hishult as the parish of birth and Anne Marie as the mother and Margareta’s birth date as 8 February 1750, the latter revealed in the 1815 household examination record (like a census) when Margareta was 67 years old. Her birth, however, does not appear in the Hishult records. Other entries appear to be complete and competently entered.
When and where was Margareta born and who was her mother?
The tax records outline that the family did not live in Hishult prior to 1752, but gave the name of three parishes where they had resided prior to arrival in Hishult. I formulated a series of hypotheses that Margareta was born in each of the other parishes named and set out to prove that she was born in that parish. (Hypotheses are assumed true until proven false.) Parish no. 1 and no. 2 had no birth entry for Margareta, and had continuous and clear record keeping. Parish no. 3 had no birth entries for Margareta in the five year span I reviewed. The year 1752 had no entries, just two blank pages. Entries before and after were clear and carefully entered with a steady hand. The blank pages for 1752 were a telling piece of negative evidence. The use of mtDNA confirmed that the family of the mother was Anne Marie’s, providing the final clue.[2]
First, Margareta’s problem certainly qualified as a significant problem of both relationship (who was her mother) and identity (when and where was she born.) It was not a same-named problem, but the research question was focused on more than a single identifier. The first criteria in the opening paragraph was satisfied.
Next, what is the over-riding technique used? When you build multiple hypotheses, each one becomes a sub-proof, and each could be any one of the three techniques outlined above. The three entries of known information provided direct evidence of her birth, but were in conflict (technique no. 2). Where no evidence was found of Margareta’s birth in various parishes, the lack of a birth entry for her, provided negative evidence that she was not born in that parish (technique no. 1). Parish no. 3, where Margareta’s birth year was blank, coupled with her birth not found anywhere else, was indirect evidence. The mtDNA match provided indirect evidence of the mother being in the Beckman family, but did not provide direct evidence of who was the mother. Margareta in the context of her family provided indirect evidence of her mother. No record named Anne Marie as her mother, but indirect evidence–mtDNA, marriage date of Anne Marie and Anders (1750) and context of Margareta in the family provided indirect evidence of the mother being Anne Marie Ericsdotter Beckman.
So I relooked at my research question “When and where was Margareta born and who was her mother?” A focus on the question allowed me to review the three options:
- It wasn’t technique no. 2: I had no direct evidence of where she was born and the name of her mother. While I did have direct evidence of her date of birth it was unreliable and disassociated from the birth by decades. The predominant technique was not conflicting direct evidence.
- It wasn’t technique no. 3: Though I had multiple known birth years (direct evidence) in conflict, none named her location of birth or her mother.
- By process of elimination, and in spite of there being sub-proofs of a variety of kinds, technique no. 1 seems the best fit. No record names her birth date, birth location or mother, but the assemblage of indirect (placement of Margareta within the family), negative evidence (the blank 1752 parish entries), and the elimination of other options, coupled with mtDNA, leads to a conclusion that Anne Marie was Margareta Andersdotter’s mother; probably 8 February was her birth date, and she was born in 1752 in Halmstad parish.
We may have sub-proofs within our Case Studies that confuse us as to the technique used, even the opening paragraph about significance can “sound like” a technique, but a focus on the research question provides clarity.
I think I have it right. What do you think?
[1] This will be presented on 6 January 2024 to the Swedish Genealogical Society of Colorado (at the time of the writing I don’t see it on their website) and the second has yet to be announced, but is in March.
[2] You can learn more about this case and the additional evidence found at: Jill Morelli, “Indirect Evidence and mtDNA Help Identify the Parents of Margareta Andersdotter of Hishult Parish, Halland Län, Sweden.”Swedish American Genealogist, June 2020.
Genealogy Certification: My Personal Journal 