About the work

A closer look.

A family legend. A town's marker. A name that half-carries a claim. You send one line: the name, the place, the year, the story as your family or your town tells it. I go to the primary record - registers, censuses, dockets, newspapers, court papers, whatever actually survived - and I write back where the story and the record agree, where they part, and where the record simply goes silent. I don't invent around a silence. If a legend can't be checked, I say so and you don't pay. Proof of the work: a West Virginia historical marker credits the ghost of a murdered woman with an 1897 conviction. The record is narrower. The 1897 newspapers report her testimony in open court - and it was the defense who brought her out, not the state. The marker kept a story the record never carried. How it works: 1. Send one line. The first look is free: I tell you whether any record can settle it. 2. If it holds: $25 by card. 600-900 words, every claim set against its source, sources openable and dated, one revision, back within 72 hours. 3. Yours to keep, public or private. I don't republish it. Terms agreed before any payment link is sent. The method I use, free, step by step, no gate: https://telegra.ph/How-to-check-a-family-story-against-the-record-10-31 Words you might have typed to find me: check a family legend, is my family story true, fact check a family story, historical marker history, what does the plaque get wrong, local legend checked, verify an old family story, town history research, ancestor fact check, genealogy checks.