How we know, and what is missing

Part VI

Every claim here carries a confidence. These chapters keep the sources, the registers read and not read, the open questions and the corrections in the open, so that a gap is not mistaken for a fact.

Start reading: Sources →

1. 1SourcesA family tree, a set of Croatian parish registers reachable through FamilySearch, and national surname statistics.
2. 2Which Books Are IndexedAn indexed book is a search box; an unindexed one is a sitting in front of a film.
3. 3What Has Been ReadSo that a null is not lost: which volumes have been read, and which have not.
4. 4What the Registers Actually SayEvery document read off a page, with the citation in the register's own words.
5. 5The Pages ThemselvesA photograph of the register page for each reading that has one.
6. 6What Rests on a DocumentWhat each page's evidence is, person by person, added up.
7. 7Open QuestionsWritten down so no reader mistakes a gap for a fact; each says what would close it.
8. 8What Is Left to ReadEvery person whose birth or death was written in a parish whose films are reachable.
9. 9The Hungarian PressLika and the Kvarner were administered from Budapest; the press of that administration had never been searched.
10. 10ErrandsEvery letter this archive has written, in full: drafted, sent and answered.
11. 11The work listWhat is being done here, as opposed to what is known.
12. 12CorrectionsThe claims made here and then withdrawn, kept in the open.
13. 13What changedEvery change this archive has recorded about itself, newest first.
14. 14What Cannot Be TrueThings in one record that cannot all be true at once.
15. 15The Same Person, TwiceOne person counted as two, and how that inflates every number.
16. 16Labels Where the Father Should BeLabels where the father should be: removed from the people, not yet from the parents.

The whole book: Contents