Welcome to Evidentia!

In the workshop webinar, I used my grandfather, James P. Cosgrove, as the most likely candidate to create a great learning experience for entering data into Evidentia. On the first screen, you’ll see the list on the left side with “Document A Source” at the top. When you click that item, you’ll see the next screen:

We went through this screen to enter a Source. Keep in mind, a Source is anything that holds information: an official document, a photograph, a scrapbook, a compiled genealogy, an oral history, etc. etc. There’s a *little*

button to the right, highlighted below with the yellow description, which opens up templates for you to use to enter the necessary items for each type of Source:

A dialog box filled with options opens, and all you do is select the most appropriate one. In my example I chose the 1940 US Census image which I accessed via Ancestry.com as my source document:

By pressing the ‘Select’ button at the bottom, a data entry box opens:

This is fabulous because 1) you don’t have to know the technicalities of Source citation and 2) you become familiar with the technicalities of Source citation (because it’s properly generated for you) here. Simply begin to enter the appropriate information from your Source:

See how it adds the information into the template on the right! Once you’re finished entering the necessary information, press the “Save” button and you will have entered a Source. However, there’s a very important next step on the “Document a Source” screen: “Provenance”. As you can see, there is a list of items from which you can choose. This helps to qualify the quality of your Source. Why? Well, it would be terrific if every Index or Abstract or memory of Auntie Lou’s was EXACTLY the same as the original, but that’s not always the

case. So we have to take into consideration, in our final analysis of all the information we’ve gathered, the quality of our Sources.

In this case, I saw the image copy on Ancestry.com, so I selected “Image Copy”. The next step is to “Catalogue Claims” that you find in the Source. Be careful! I made the mistake of using other knowledge in conjunction with information in a Source to fill in the “Claims” box when I first started using the program. But this defeats the purpose of the program. So, be certain to only use information DIRECTLY from your Source! As an example, I added a piece we’ll look at quickly in the next webinar:

Notice the yellow box says, “Complete this sentence: The source asserts that…” This is where you enter all the claims in the Source. In the example letter, this

statement is made, “I guess you are both pleased now that you have a son and daughter.” The claim is that “you have a son and daughter” and the recipient of the correspondence is James Cosgrove, Jr. (as by “Dear Jim and Joan”):

In addition, note that there is a “Subjects” box as well. Just double-click and a new dialogue box opens that allows you to enter or select Subjects that this Claim addresses.

Note that the Claim itself is quoted at the top of the dialog box. Select the appropriate Subject, or enter a new one.

You will also need to select a “Claim Type”:

Once the Subject and Claim Type are entered, the determination of the quality of the information needs to be addressed:

Here we’re provided with some guidance on the qualifications of “Primary” and “Secondary” evidence. For our purposes in this example, there are three choices: primary indicates the person was present at the event, secondary means they were not at the event themselves, and unknown simply means you as the researcher are unaware of the relationship between the Claim and the Source. Again, for this example, I chose “Secondary” because the writer, to my current knowledge, was not present at the event.

You are now at the point where we left off in the webinar. However, there are a few Lists and Reports I wanted to share with you. Please keep in mind I’m using my example database, so there isn’t a lot of data available just yet. And, I don’t want to give away the ending!!

The “List Manager” provides a template for you to enter Subjects and Claim Types (as discussed above):

The “Template Creator” provides for the creation of new Citation Templates. The database currently holds a very large number of templates; the variety covers most categories very well. Should there be a Source that you want to add for which there isn’t a template, this is the place to add it. (Again, we won’t go into a lot of detail about this particular item):

There is also an “Age Calculator”. Note that the calculated date appears next to the word ‘Evidentia’ and that the result can be copied and pasted:

What else is there? How about Reports! There are three available tabs in the Reports Manager; they are “Proofs”, “Research” and “Utility”. For now, we won’t review the “Proofs” reports, because we haven’t gotten to the “Analyze Evidence” screen yet.

The “Utility” report screen is fairly simple and provides a way to ensure you’ve entered things appropriately. There is an option for a “Claims without Subjects” report and a “Sources without Citations” report:

As you can see, when you select a Report, it opens in a web browser:

Here’s an example of the other report:

The “Research” Report is just that; a compiled report that encompasses all the information that has been entered for a given subject. Here’s a cool suggestion: don’t forget places. You have the ability to analyze any Subject, and you’re in control of what Subjects are entered. So think broadly!Here’s the Research Report for my Subject, James P. Cosgrove (please note, due to the manner in which I put this document together, the formatting on the Report from Evidentia is not as it will normally appear. In addition, I made the text blue to highlight it. The word “assertion” is the same as “Claim” for the databases purposes.):

Subject: Cosgrove, James P.Prepared By Laura Cosgrove Lorenzana

SummaryThe Evidentia® database includes 6 events and/or facts for Cosgrove, James P.

These include:

Birth 3 assertions, 0 reviewed.Birth Place 2 assertions, 0 reviewed.Immigration 1 assertions, 0 reviewed.Marriage 2 assertions, 0 reviewed.Occupation 2 assertions, 0 reviewed.Residence 1 assertions, 0 reviewed.

BirthA Summary Conclusion is yet to be created for this fact/event.The related references are enumerated below.

The 1940 U.S. Census - Chicago - Cosgrove - Citation 1 [1] asserts thatCosgrove, James P. is 53 years old on 5 April 1940. This assertion is notassociated with other subjects. This assertion has not been reviewed.

The 1930 U.S. Census - Chicago - Cosgrove - Citation 1 [2] asserts thatCosgrove, James P. was 40 years old as of 18 April 1930 (birth year1890). This assertion is not associated with other subjects. Thisassertion has not been reviewed.

The 1930 U.S. Census - Chicago - Cosgrove - Citation 1 [2] asserts thatCosgrove, James P. was 37 at the time of his marriage to FlorenceCosgrove. This assertion is not associated with other subjects. Thisassertion has not been reviewed.

Birth PlaceA Summary Conclusion is yet to be created for this fact/event.The related references are enumerated below.

The 1940 U.S. Census - Chicago - Cosgrove - Citation 1 [1] asserts thatCosgrove, James P. was born in Massachusetts. This assertion is notassociated with other subjects. This assertion has not been reviewed.

The 1930 U.S. Census - Chicago - Cosgrove - Citation 1 [2] asserts thatCosgrove, James P. was born in England.. This assertion is notassociated with other subjects. This assertion has not been reviewed.

ImmigrationA Summary Conclusion is yet to be created for this fact/event.The related references are enumerated below.

The 1930 U.S. Census - Chicago - Cosgrove - Citation 1 [2] asserts thatCosgrove, James P. immigrated in 1924.. This assertion is notassociated with other subjects. This assertion has not been reviewed.

MarriageA Summary Conclusion is yet to be created for this fact/event.The related references are enumerated below.

The 1940 U.S. Census - Chicago - Cosgrove - Citation 1 [1] asserts thatCosgrove, James P. is married to Cosgrove, Florence. This assertion isnot associated with other subjects. This assertion has not beenreviewed.

The 1930 U.S. Census - Chicago - Cosgrove - Citation 1 [2] asserts thatCosgrove, James P. was 37 at the time of his marriage to FlorenceCosgrove. This assertion is not associated with other subjects. Thisassertion has not been reviewed.

OccupationA Summary Conclusion is yet to be created for this fact/event.The related references are enumerated below.

The 1940 U.S. Census - Chicago - Cosgrove - Citation 1 [1] asserts thatCosgrove, James P. was a French furniture polisher in a retail furniturestore in April 1940. This assertion is not associated with other subjects.This assertion has not been reviewed.

The 1930 U.S. Census - Chicago - Cosgrove - Citation 1 [2] asserts thatCosgrove, James P. was a furniture refinisher in 1930. This assertion isnot associated with other subjects. This assertion has not beenreviewed.

ResidenceA Summary Conclusion is yet to be created for this fact/event.The related references are enumerated below.

The 1940 U.S. Census - Chicago - Cosgrove - Citation 1 [1] asserts thatCosgrove, James P. lived in rural Will County, Illinois in 1935. Thisassertion is not associated with other subjects. This assertion has notbeen reviewed.

End Notes

1 1940 U.S. census, Cook County, Illinois, population schedule, Chicago, enumerationdistrict (ED) 103-1163 p. 2B, household 34, Cosgrove, James P.; Ancestry.comdatabase on-line accessed 12 November 2012 citing NARA microfilm publicationT627, roll 956.

2 1930 U.S. census, Cook County, Illinois, population schedule, Chicago, enumerationdistrict (ED) 1863 p. 25B, dwelling 1761, family 506, Cosgrove, James P. ; NARAmicrofilm publication T626, roll 493.

Prepared by Laura Cosgrove LorenzanaEvidentia® 2012

Of course, since we haven’t gone through the “Analyze Evidence” section yet, there are references to both “assertion has not been reviewed” and “Summary Conclusion is yet to be created”. How do we get the “Summary Conclusion”? As a preview, here’s what the “Analyze Evidence” screen looks like. Notice that I clicked on the drop-down arrow next to the “Proof” line and a list was generated by the database! Each time you enter a Claim and/or a Subject, you’re adding information to the database from which it can extract. So, you can either select a Proof, or select a separate Subject and Claim. The choice is yours!

Here’s the screen we’ll review when analyzing the evidence for James P. Cosgrove’s place of birth:

We’ll address what the yellow box is saying about how to review the evidence’s quality; this is a key component of the analysis process.

I hope this review, and preview, helps give you even more reason to try out this great tool. I’ll look forward to hearing how your experience using Evidentia went and learning from you more ways to use it. Hope to ‘see’ you all on Monday for Part Two!!