Is it "disproven" or probably wrong?

Question

I have had a number of notes on profiles requesting that certain information regarding "potential" heritage be removed.   The reasoning from the person is that the information provided is "known" to be false. This occurs where the person in the profile is well documented, but, the parents are unknown.   A Research Note heading exists with the possibilities for heritage listed.     When I ask for sources, I get a lot of "unsourced" family trees or "opinions" that have no facts to back them up.

I have explained to these members that the information they want removed will stay under research notes with the "evidence explained" paragraph (meaning the suspected heritage has an explanation with facts) until someone finds "reliable sources" to prove the evidence explained as false or disproven.

Do we need to add something at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Research_Notes

under :

You might use this section to explain:

• The current state of research. Where have you looked, and where haven't you looked?
• Common mistakes or myths. Are there likely sources of mistakes for this person's genealogy?

Looking for ideas....

Comments

To clarify, let me give an example.

The Research Notes indicate that the person was born in France per "family tradition" with a source within 100 years of the estimated birth of the person.   But, there is a source where the person says they "came from" England.   The person has an unusual name, and the research notes indicate that this name is found on a ship's manifest coming from England (with a citation of record), the name is found in abundance in France, (another citation is given), but, not found in England, therefore, it is believed that the person migrated from France to England, where the person then boarded a ship to the new world.  

The argument is....he says he was from England, there is a manifest from England, why speculate that he came from France.....it is only "family lore".....

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It was quite dommon for someone born in France to go to Enlwnd or Scotland and possibly later go o the new world from Engln or Scoland.   Probably more ships going between England and Scotland and the new world

Answer 1

I think it would be helpful to define when (or if it is acceptable) to call something "disproven", as opposed to just being potentially incorrect. Wikitree standard, I mean, so that we only see that if the overwhelming abundance of evidence shows something to be unreliable, or there is a demonstrably false statement that the assertion relies on. (E.g. "Charles could not have sailed on the Santa Maria with Columbus because he was born in 1910")

Answer 2

It is inherently difficult to prove a negative, but there definitely are situations in genealogy where an assertion can be proven wrong, for example, by demonstrating that it is impossible (like Jonathan's example) or by demonstrating that it originated in a fraudulent work by a well-known fraudulent genealogist. There are other instances where it is all but certain that a claim is wrong, but it cannot be disproved to 100% certainty. In WikiTree biographies, I like to use language like "There is no known evidence to support this claim." That sort of statement often can be supported/augmented by fact-based assertions like "The surviving parish records for the [claimed place of baptism] did not commence until 40 years after the claimed baptism date."  In situations like this, I believe that the false claims and the lack of evidence usually need to be discussed prominently in the body of the biography (because the claim is in published books and numerous online family trees), not relegated to Research Notes.

However, as Robin's question suggests, sometimes the absence of evidence is best understood as a case of "I haven't found anything." In those instances, I think it is necessary to document the absence of evidence by adding a signed and dated Research Note identifying the various sources I checked without finding anything to support a particular claim. 

Answer 3

family lore can be entirely misleading, my mother used to say she was 1/4 or 1/8th Irish, not a bit of it, my only Irish ancestor is on my father's side.

Putting the various data in research notes as to the claims made for a person's origin etc sounds right to me.  Should have the notation of ''no evidence found'' when none exists.