How we know, and what is missing

Part VI

What this archive rests on, and for every line of it whether the document itself has been read or only an index to it. The investigations come next: the Sicilian and Queensland registers, the audit of searches that proved to be open, and the test of the claim that runs to 1697. Last come what has been read, the questions that remain, where a document and the family tree disagree, and what is being done as opposed to what is known.

Start reading: Sources →

1. VI.1SourcesWhat this archive rests on, and whether the document itself has been read or only an index to it.
2. VI.2DocumentsThe photographs and papers held in the family's own tree, saved down before the links expired.
3. VI.3The Sicilian RegistersNine annual indexes and six acts, hunting one man who is still missing.
4. VI.4The Queensland RegisterThe Registry's historical index is free, authoritative, and can be searched by a father's or a mother's name.
5. VI.5The AuditA search that had been closed turned out to be open, so each negative was re-read to ask what set its window.
6. VI.6Testing the 1697The largest claim, eleven generations to Briatico about 1697: four of those generations rest on nothing, and are not testable online.
7. VI.7What Has Been ReadA search that found nothing is still a result: what has been done and what is still outstanding.
8. VI.8Open QuestionsEach question written down with the document that would settle it, and where that document is.
9. VI.9CorrectionsEvery place where a document and the family tree disagree, with the source for each.
10. VI.10What changedWhat moved, when, and what the record was, including what this archive got wrong and took back.
11. VI.11ErrandsRecords a comune, a diocese or a state archive holds and does not publish, and what would go in the letter for each.
12. VI.12The work listWhat is being done here, as opposed to what is known.

The whole book: Contents