Primary source21 people in this family
Verified against original documents: birth/marriage/death certificates, census records, headstones, wills, primary tax rolls.
In practice: Original civil records (birth, marriage, death certificates), federal and state census schedules, headstone records, wills and probate, primary tax rolls like the 1666 Hearth Money Roll, and government-issued military service files. Also includes the DAR Patriot Ancestor records that DAR has verified against original sources.
Verified secondary10 people in this family
Verified against two or more credible published scholarly sources or a primary record plus an independent corroboration.
In practice: Multiple credible published scholarly genealogies that agree on the same facts. Examples in this family: Cooper 1957 Descendants of John Dean of Dedham; Saunderson 1876 History of Charlestown New Hampshire; the Ward 1858 Rice genealogy and its 1967 Edmund Rice Association supplement; the Wikipedia entries on Col. Robert Bolling, Major John Stith, and Bolling Hall; the William and Mary College Quarterly. A single primary record plus an independent corroboration also reaches this tier.
Partial verification0 people in this family
Single scholarly source, or multiple cross-referencing user trees. Suggestive but not fully documented.
In practice: One credible secondary source on its own, or multiple user-submitted family trees that agree but lack underlying records. Suggestive but not yet documented.
Single user tree8 people in this family
Single user-submitted tree, family memory, or undocumented assertion. Preserved for continuity but not independently verified.
In practice: A single user-submitted family tree on FamilySearch, WikiTree, or Geni, with no underlying records attached. Or a direct family-memory account from the spearhead client (Brant). Preserved for tree continuity but not independently verified.
Family tradition only0 people in this family
Family tradition or speculative chain with no documentary support. Records explicitly noted as unverified.
In practice: Family tradition or speculative noble-line claims with no documentary support and where absence of documentary trace is itself suspect. These entries are explicitly flagged so visitors can see they are unverified.
How a tier can be upgraded.
A partial entry rises to verified-secondary when a second independent credible source corroborates it. A verified-secondary entry rises to verified-primary when the original document (birth certificate, census schedule, headstone, will) is located and cited. The research path is the same for any family: FamilySearch first, WikiTree and Geni for cross-verification, Find a Grave for burial confirmation, state archives for civil records, then the published scholarly genealogies for the colonial and pre-colonial generations.
When primary records require travel or paid records (Scottish OPR records at ScotlandsPeople, DAR Record Copies, state Vital Records), we surface the gap and let the family decide whether to pursue it.