Citation & Confidence
Know which lines are proven — and which are still a lead.
Most family-tree tools state a relationship as fact with no source behind it. We do the opposite: every claim carries a real citation, an honest confidence score, and a check for contradictions. You always know how sure we are, and why.
What “evidence-based” means here
Source, score, and check
A source on every line
Every factual sentence ends in a footnote pointing to a specific record, DNA match, or ancient-DNA sample. If we can’t source a claim, we don’t make it.
A confidence score
Each claim is rated — high, medium, or tentative — based on how strong and how independent its evidence is, so you know what’s solid and what’s a lead.
Contradictions flagged
When two sources disagree — a birth year off by a decade, two different fathers — we surface the conflict instead of quietly picking one.
An illustrative evidence chain
Each claim, with its source and confidence
This example is fictional and clearly marked. It shows how a claim, its source, and its confidence travel together — and how a contradiction is flagged in plain sight.
Rivka was born in Brody, Galicia, around 1861.
High confidenceSource
JewishGen — Brody birth register, 1861
Direct record match on name and town.
Her father Yosef was a textile merchant.
Medium confidenceSource
JewishGen — Brody town census, 1880
Occupation listed; identity inferred from household.
A second census lists her birth year as 1858.
Tentative confidenceSource
JewishGen — district census, 1869
Conflicts with the 1861 register — flagged, not overwritten.
Why this is different
ThruLines and similar tools suggest a relationship and present it as settled — with no citation and no warning when records disagree. We attach a source and a confidence score to every claim, and we flag contradictions in the open instead of hiding them.