Public change log
Research Updates
An archive that never revises itself is not being checked. Every change to a published conclusion appears here with the evidence that forced it and the name of the researcher who made it.
Published corrections
Where a conclusion changed
No published conclusion has yet been overturned
This log fills the first time new evidence forces the archive to revise something it has stated in public. Until then, the change history lives in the research ledger below.
From the ledger
Recorded revisions
2026-09-09 · people · superseded
BT-PER-00245 (R. H. Taliaferro) consolidated into BT-PER-00244 (Richard Henry Taliaferro) as a correlated identity.
A differently recorded name form was being carried as a separate person. Time, place, family, estate, associates, role and chronology all correlate, and no competing individual of that name has been found.
2026-08-20 · claim · status_change
Status raised from family tradition to documented.
George Smith's 1936 Illinois death record names his father as John Smith and his mother as Laura Tatlefero. Until this record was entered, the link rested on family knowledge alone.
2026-08-20 · evidence · correction
The literacy observation was rewritten from a compiled-research report to a reading of the original page.
The original census image is now held in the archive, so the observation no longer rests on a secondary compilation.
2026-08-20 · claim · status_change
The marriage date moved from under investigation to documented: June 1870.
The page of the 1870 census carrying the household was deposited in the archive and read. Both Laura's and John's lines are marked married within the year, June.
2026-08-20 · person · created
Monroe Smith was created as a person from his line in the 1870 census.
An infant named Monroe is enumerated beneath John and Laura in dwelling 786, marked born within the year.
2026-08-20 · claim · status_change
Status raised from documented to corroborated.
The two page images of the 1865 Freedmen's Bureau register of former slaves were deposited in the archive and read line by line. Hilliard, Bettie and Laura are each named in the H. G. D. Brown group at Lucky Hit, which corroborates the age-consistent lines in the 1860 slave schedule.
2026-08-20 · claim · status_change
Status raised from documented to corroborated.
The two page images of the 1865 Freedmen's Bureau register of former slaves were deposited in the archive and read line by line. Hilliard, Bettie and Laura are each named in the H. G. D. Brown group at Lucky Hit, which corroborates the age-consistent lines in the 1860 slave schedule.
2026-08-20 · claim · status_change
Status raised from documented to corroborated.
The two page images of the 1865 Freedmen's Bureau register of former slaves were deposited in the archive and read line by line. Hilliard, Bettie and Laura are each named in the H. G. D. Brown group at Lucky Hit, which corroborates the age-consistent lines in the 1860 slave schedule.
Read the full research ledger for every logged research action, or the methodology for the conditions under which a conclusion is revised. Current archive version: Public Beta · Version 0.1.