S3U

History / Historical sources / Undergraduate / hsd01

Trace Provenance Before Counting Corroboration

Evaluate dependence among historical accounts.

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5 questions0m 0s

Prerequisites

Primary-source analysis, chronology, provenance, and corroboration.

Learn the skill

Count independent evidential pathways, not merely documents. A copy, translation, quotation, or later retelling may preserve valuable information while depending on an earlier account. Track transmission before treating repetition as corroboration.

Worked example

Three newspapers reprinting one dispatch do not provide three independent eyewitnesses. Their differences can still reveal editing, circulation, or reception.

Model and Assumptions

Fictional dossier: A is a dated clerk's event note. B is a newspaper account quoting A. C is a later memoir whose relevant paragraph repeats B, including a distinctive error. D is a separately produced shipping ledger. The claim concerns whether cargo departed that day.

1. Which pair has explicit dependence in the dossier?
2. What does the distinctive shared error suggest about C?
3. Which item offers a potentially separate evidential pathway?
4. What must be checked before treating a ledger entry as actual departure?
5. What should a source map distinguish?

Further inquiry

Draw a directed transmission graph and write a claim-by-source matrix. Develop two interpretations of the departure claim and specify an additional record that would discriminate between them.

Review criteria

  • Do not count copies as independent eyewitnesses.
  • Explain the ledger's possible record-making purposes.
  • Keep uncertainty specific to each claim.