The Family Tree

We keep the family's history the way a careful researcher would: one plain text file per person, every claim tied to the record it came from, and a confidence grade on anything that is still a guess. The genealogy websites are tools we use, not the place the tree lives. A small private website turns it all into an interactive tree the family can explore, with the original documents a click away.

The rule of the house: if we can't point to the record, it doesn't go in the tree as a fact. Some of the best work is the careful "no": a family story checked against the census and quietly set aside.

Highlights

• One readable file per person, with facts, relationships and the story in plain text
• Thousands of cited sources, each with a catalog entry, and a grade for how sure we are
• Open questions tracked in a queue and worked through on purpose, including the dead ends
• A private, invite-only family website with a pan-and-zoom tree and the evidence behind each fact