For many years now I have recommended that my students get a genealogy buddy who’s job apart from listening to long, sometimes very long, ancestral stories is to go over a piece of tricky genealogical research and tell them if they have a case for including that person in their family tree. In others words the buddy makes you prove it beyond reasonable doubt!!

Here is an article that outlines what you need to have done before you can conclude that you have found the most likeliest candidate to be your great grandfather – or whoever. The further you go back the harder it is to be able to say you are 100% certain you have got your man/woman. All you can do is look at the evidence available and come to a conclusion and that is where your buddy and this article comes in.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5323312_apply-genealogical-proof-standard.html