Tom Jones :quick notes from his presentations today

DearREADERS,
Today, in all the excitement of attending the Fairfax Genealogical Society's fall conference featuring Thomas W. Jones, Ph. D., CG, CGL, FASG, FUGA Ol' Myrt here learned a great deal. His three presentations were titled:

• Inferential Genealogy:Deducing Ancestors' Identities Indirectly
• Going Beyond the Bare Bones:Reconstructing Your Ancestors' Lives
• Methods of Proving Parentage

This last presentation provided 15 combinations of relevant sources and potential parents. Dr. Jones encouraged us to think outside the realm of the usual and customary types of evidence when attempting to prove parentage.

Snippets of info -- which could have become Tweets if I could figure out how to do Twitter better:

• TOM JONES: (answers) Most premarital agreements are found in deed books. Sometimes they are called "mixed" record books that also include wills.

• TOM JONES: Uses Microsoft Word rather than a genealogy management program. He uses a Word macro numbering system for when additional family members are added.

• TOM JONES: The definition of INFER - arriving at a conclusion from evidence collected. (He recommends writing your proof argument, to pull all the info together.)
  
  
• TOM JONES: The principle of COVERTURE - English law considering a married couple as a single entity, where the husband is empowered to conduct business. This makes it difficult to trace women in legal records.

This was a thought provoking day.

Happy family tree climbing!
Myrt :)
DearMYRTLE,
Your friend in genealogy.
Myrt@DearMYRTLE.com