EDITORIAL METHOD · PRIVACY · CORRECTIONS
Evidence & Research Standards
Written In The Genome approaches genetic genealogy and family history as evidence-led work. We center Afro-Indigenous and African-diasporic agency, oral tradition, and restorative historical narratives while distinguishing what records establish, what evidence strongly suggests, and what remains unproven.
How we weigh evidence
Not every family-history claim carries the same level of support. When a dispatch makes a genealogical, historical, or genetic claim, its language should match the evidence available.
Primary-source confirmed
Supported directly by contemporaneous records or original materials, such as census schedules, deeds, probate files, parish registers, court records, family Bibles, or documented DNA test relationships.
Strongly supported
Supported by converging indirect evidence, multiple records, pattern analysis, or tested genetic-network evidence, but lacking one definitive source.
Oral tradition & community memory
Preserved through family testimony, community knowledge, and inherited narrative. These accounts are treated as meaningful evidence and are not recast as documentary fact without corroboration.
Working hypothesis
A plausible interpretation that guides further research. It remains explicitly provisional until documentary, genetic, or other evidence can substantiate it.
Research practice
We look beyond standard Eurocentric record frameworks by reading archives alongside oral tradition, community geography, naming practices, kinship networks, migration routes, and historical context. This does not lower the standard of proof. It broadens the questions we ask and clarifies the limits of records created by institutions that often misclassified, erased, or fragmented Afro-Indigenous and African-diasporic lives.
DNA may support, complicate, or redirect a paper trail; it does not by itself establish a specific historical identity, community affiliation, or ancestor without the appropriate evidentiary context.
Privacy and living relatives
Public work omits specific names and identifying biographical details for living individuals. Biographical references are kept high-level unless an individual has clearly placed information in the public record and its use is necessary to the research purpose. DNA examples are generalized or de-identified, and Genotype Scout is designed to process raw genotype files locally in the browser rather than upload them to third-party servers.
Corrections and revisions
Genealogical research changes when new records, better transcriptions, or well-supported counterevidence emerge. When a published claim requires correction, the page should be revised with a clear note explaining the substantive change. Readers may submit a correction or source lead through the project’s public contact pathways.
Use this standard while reading
Look for an evidence label, source note, or research disclaimer near the beginning of a dispatch. If an article does not yet include one, read interpretive claims as work in progress and consult linked primary sources or the research library where available.
