Sometimes, the direct proof we need just isn’t there in genealogy. Records are missing or non-existent. The records we do find have inaccuracies or missing information in them. We find records that have conflicting information. It can be frustrating when we can’t directly prove the relationships we need to prove for our research. However, just because we can’t make a direct connection between two people (or between a person
and an event) doesn’t mean that we can’t make a reasonable assumption about it.
These reasonable assumptions are called “reasonable conclusions” in genealogy, and, provided you make them in the correct manner, they are acceptable for use in articles in scholarly and recreational genealogical journals and books. The Board of Certification of Genealogists even accepts well done reasonable
conclusions as a legitimate means of conducting genealogy research. In fact, part of their certification course for professional genealogists involves doing a piece of research that relies solely on making a reasonable conclusion from the available evidence...
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