Records Before Conclusions

• Identify the person using full name, service number, branch, rank, and dated records. Preserve variants rather than silently merging people.
• Separate personal, unit, ship, and aircraft histories. Link them only when the evidence supports the connection.
• Catalog the original or source copy before writing a narrative. Record creator, document date, page locator, provenance, access, and limitations.
• Write the exact proposition supported by the page. A recommendation supports the fact of a recommendation; the award itself needs separate evidence.
• Record both event date and document date.
• Seek independent corroboration. A scan, excerpt, OCR file, and transcription derived from one source remain one source lineage.
• Turn an unresolved question into a scoped request with custodian, date range, identifiers, and follow-up status.

Evidence status

D1	Direct primary evidence	The source directly supports the stated proposition.
D2	Corroborated primary evidence	Independent primary records support the proposition.
S1	Authoritative secondary evidence	Official institutional history or authoritative finding aid.
S2	Credible secondary evidence	Identify author, method, sources, and publication.
I	Inference	State the supporting facts and remaining assumption.
C	Conflict	Preserve competing assertions with their dates and scope.
U	Unverified	A lead, claim, or unresolved gap; it does not mean false.
N	Negative research result	Record the repository, query, dates, and search coverage.

Research pathways

• Reconstruct a military career and build a dated timeline.
• Research a deceased veteran.
• Find personnel files, unit histories, rosters, muster rolls, deck logs, and flight records.
• Read a separation record in context rather than as the entire service history.
• Reconcile conflicting records and preserve negative search results.
• Distinguish fact, source-reported claim, inference, and family recollection.

Use the Military Records Library for evidence families, the Authorities directory for governing sources, and History & Collections for contextual research that remains separate from individual proof.