About and how to use this site
How this site records dates, places, names, sources and privacy, and how to read its screens.
Dates
A date is shown as it was recorded. A qualifier is kept and shown as a short word: abt for about, bef for before, aft for after, est for estimated and cal for calculated. A range is shown as "1801 to 1802". A date written in the old and new style across the new year is shown as "1750/51". A date from the Julian calendar says so. A date that is not recorded is shown as a hyphen, not as a blank.
Places
A place is a record in a hierarchy, not a line of text. Lists and chart nodes show the two most specific levels, and the place page shows the whole hierarchy with any former names and the years they applied.
Names
One name is the primary name and the others are shown under it with the kind of name they are. Surnames are set in small capitals in lists so they can be scanned without a second colour.
Sources and confidence
Every fact that has a source carries a numbered marker to the Sources section at the foot of the page, and the same source keeps the same number throughout. A fact with no source carries a visible "No source" chip, because the absence of a marker cannot be seen. Confidence is shown as a word and a row of pips, never as a colour alone.
Story and Evidence
A person page has two reading modes over the same records. Story gives the life as prose with one group of source markers per paragraph. Evidence gives the fact table with a marker on each fact, the confidence of each citation and the record identifiers. The mode is in the address, so a link carries the mode you chose.
Privacy
Living people are not published. What is withheld and why is set out on the privacy page.
Reading the charts
Every chart has a list form behind a control labelled "View as a list", because a list can be read by keyboard, on a phone and by a screen reader. A branch that can be opened shows how many people are behind it, so an unopened branch is never mistaken for a family that was never recorded.
Lists and paging
Lists are paged at fifty rows with the page number in the address, so every page can be linked to and nothing disappears as you scroll. The surname index is the way in to people rather than the ten thousand row list.