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How we mark the evidence
Scrollsigns™ Strongest first.
Not every source is worth the same. A death certificate filed the week a man died is not a story his grandson told sixty years later, and neither of them is our own opinion. Scrollsigns are the nine marks Project Scroll puts on every statement in its research, strongest first, so you can see at a glance what the record says and what we are arguing from it.
The nine marks
What the record saysWhat we argue from it
The nine marks
Six for what the record says, from the strongest witness down; three for what we argue from it, always labelled and always open to correction. Tap a mark in the example to see what it means.
What the record says
- Document
- Made at the time, by someone whose job was to write it down: a death certificate, a deed, a census page, a survey, a map. Example: a 1912 Michigan death certificate.
- Period print
- Printed at or near the time: a newspaper notice, an obituary, a book of the day. Example: a doctor’s obituary printed the year he died.
- County history
- The big county histories of the 1870s to the 1910s. Rich and indispensable, but often written decades later from what families remembered, and rarely checked. Example: the 1882 History of Cass County.
- Compiled
- A later hand gathering earlier records: an index, a bibliography, a transcription, a modern summary. Good for finding things; we go back to the original whenever it survives. Example: a trail-diary bibliography that lists an unpublished typescript.
- Tradition
- What a family or a community says, passed down by word of mouth. Worth recording exactly as told, and worth testing. Example: “Grandpa always said he came over on the last boat before the war.”
- Field
- What we saw or measured ourselves, at first hand, dated, from public ground or with permission. Example: a dated photograph of a marker on a public roadside.
What we argue from it
- Inference
- A step that follows directly from the records. Example: one certificate was filed a month after he died, the other twenty-three years later, so the first informant was closer to the event.
- Reading
- Our interpretation of what the records point to. Always labeled, always open to correction. Example: “In 1935, someone gave the father his son’s initial.”
- Hypothesis
- An idea worth testing that the records don’t yet support. We say what would prove or disprove it. Example: he never used a middle initial at all; his obituary and gravestone would tell.
Marks, strongest first: Document Period print County history Compiled Tradition Field (seen at first hand) Inference Reading Hypothesis — the last three marks are our own argument, offered for correction
How it looks in a report
A pioneer died in Michigan in 1912. His death certificate gives no middle initial Document. A county history adds “Senior” to his name County history. His son’s death certificate, filled in twenty-three years later, gives the father a middle initial: the son’s own Document. The first informant was closer to the event Inference. Father and son shared a name, and in 1935 someone gave the father the son’s initial too Reading. Or he never used a middle initial at all, which his obituary would show Hypothesis.
Tap a mark to see what it means. Every report you receive from us is marked the same way.
Weigh it yourself
Records are weighed, not counted. Put them on the scale, then try marking a few on your own.
Weigh the evidence
Add records to each side and watch the scale. Records are weighed, not counted: one good document can outweigh a pile of family stories.
Side A
Side B
The scale is level. Add a record to either side.
The weights are a rule of thumb, not a formula: a late or careless document can still be wrong, and a detailed tradition can still be right.
Try marking these yourself
Teachers and group leaders are welcome to use this exercise and the hunter’s worksheet in class. Tell us how it went.
Pick the mark you would give each one.
A notice in the local paper, the week after he died.
Period print. It was printed at the time, but by a newspaper, not by an office whose job was to record the death.
“Great-aunt Ruth always said the family came from Ohio.”
Tradition. Write it down exactly as she said it, then go and test it.
A website listing every burial in a cemetery, typed up by volunteers.
Compiled. A later hand gathered it. Wonderful for finding a name; then find the original burial record or the stone itself, on paper.
A biography of a doctor in a county history of the 1890s, quoting his obituary.
County history. And notice the obituary inside it: if that newspaper survives, it is a period print, and stronger.
“The first certificate was filed a month after he died, so its informant was closer to the event.”
Inference. It follows directly from the dates on the records themselves.
Five promises
Five promises we keep on every case and commission, whether it takes an afternoon or a season.
- Every claim comes with its source. You’ll know exactly where each fact came from, so you can check it yourself.
- Disagreements are clues, not failures. When two records argue, we show you both and explain why.
- Open questions stay open. If something might be true but can’t be proven yet, we say so, and we keep looking instead of throwing it away.
- No guarantees, just the record. Some questions have answers on paper and some don’t. We’ll tell you up front which kind yours looks like.
- We research the past. No locating living people, no legal or title opinions, no appraisals. No digging, no trespassing, and care with every family’s story.
What you get
A written report in plain English: what we found, where we found it, what is still open, and where to look next. Where the old books and maps are free online, we include the links so you can turn the pages yourself. For studio work, you get the finished images, design files or film, and your originals back as you sent them. See a sample report.
Scrollsigns in our news stories
A news story is shorter than a research report, so its statements carry four marks, which fold the nine together.
- DocumentedAnything a record says: a document, a period print, a county history or a compiled source, named in the text.
- ReadingOur interpretation of what the records point to.
- OpenWhat is not yet known, and where to look next.
- New findingSomething we found in the record that no earlier telling mentions. Every one is listed on the Discoveries page.
Using Scrollsigns
Until October 2026 these were called Scrollmarks; the old address still brings you here. The name Scrollsigns, the badges and the wording of these definitions are Project Scroll’s own. To use them in a publication, write to research@projectscroll.com.