Key to Confidence Level indicators

The "confidence level" for each individual is the level of certainty I have that this name belongs on my family tree at this position. It is not intended to indicate anything about the other information on the page, such as the person's life dates or parents.

I use four levels, and examples of their use are as follows:

Certain - This appears when either (i) I have had personal contact with the person, or (ii) there are several independent and consistent pieces of reliable documentary evidence.

High - This appears when either (i) the evidence comes from family oral history and is considered reliable,  or (ii) there is a single piece of reliable documentary evidence, eg a single census entry or perhaps a BMD entry or Old Parish Record, but I do not have the certificate.

Medium - The evidence comes from the IGI and there is only one candidate who matches the available facts, or perhaps from other sources on the internet whose validity must be taken at face value.

Low - This classification is used where I know there exists more than one candidate with the same, or similar, names and may have a similar probability of being the right one. This sometimes happens when the IGI is the only source, or where the name is a common one in the location. I have chosen to display a particular person on the balance of probability, taking into account such factors as inherited first names, proximity to other relatives and other circumstantial evidence.

Since the tree is subject to updates, "Not yet assessed" may sometimes appear as a temporary place holder.

Note on spellings

Where the spelling of a person's name varies during his or her lifetime, I have used the version as it appeared on his or her birth record, where I have it. This means that the surname of a child can differ from that of the parent. For example, the Graves branch of the family became Greaves in the second half of the nineteenth century. There is no doubt that  this happened, though I am not certain why.