It is very hard for a beginner to decide the strength of the evidence.

For example, when my husband and I were married, we were given a marriage ceremony booklet which has a marriage record inscription in the front of the book. This inscription contains the number of the official marriage license. We have kept the booklet, filed with our genealogy materials. We have also scanned the record page into our computer; our source reference for the marriage can call up this scanned page for viewing, and in addition we have stored a printout of this scan in our sources files.

Is this sufficient proof of our marriage for future genealogist to use?

Sue

Replying to Sue's message of Nov 8:
I'm not a pro, but my analysis would be that your booklet will be a very valuable document to a future genealogist, both as a personal memento that you left for your family, and as a tool that may lead the genealogist to the proof of your marriage, but I would not consider the booklet as sufficient proof. The genealogical proof standard would require me to do a reasonably exhaustive search for proof, which basically means looking for multiple sources, then analyze and reconcile any differences in the sources. So, I would want to track down the official record, via the license number that is included in your truly wonderful souvenir, and then I would want to verify the information in the license to see that it matches with other data I have found, to insure I actually have the right couple. Or, I may discover I have the right couple but discover that some of my other data is inaccurate.

My name is Jake Fletcher, I have been pursuing genealogy for six years and it has become more than hobby, but rather a career direction. I find that just coming from school, my genealogy education has been mostly solitary. I am producing a lot of work right now that I would like to work towards my portfolio. I have met a lot of people who said my work is great, but I feel like I could really benefit from someone reviewing my work with more scrutiny so I can become better. Does anyone have any suggestions or are they interested in reading some genealogy work I have produced.

Thank you, your time is greatly appreciated,

Jake