Carol Baxter has been engaged in family history research and writing since a teenager. She worked extensively in colonial document interpretation, editing and transcription before establishing her own successful business as the 'History Detective'. Her career now is as a professional writer, author of true-crime thrillers and family history how-to books, conducting seminars along with a very useful and informative website.
    The purpose of this book is to assist family historians to develop skills in accurately interpreting the information that they have collected about their ancestors. Many people spend considerable time and money gathering information, so it makes sense you would want to be confident that this information actually relates to the correct (usually your) family and the conclusions that are drawn are accurate and defensible. This book provides a rigorous and systematic approach to getting at the truth.
    As set out in the book, this process of getting at the truth is divided into principles – the foundations of evidence analysis, and practices – typical strategies which may be used to put the principles into practise, aided by the use of conflict resolution skills. These strategies are illustrated through a series of case studies involving family identity, family lore and how misinformation can take on a life of its own. The case studies are drawn from her records and research pertaining to the Nash, Drew and Douglas families, the Bank of Australia robbery, and her extensive work on Fred Ward, later known as the bushranger Captain Thunderbolt.
    The book is divided into 27 short chapters, plus a Summary Check List, Endnotes and a Bibliography. The principles' chapters comprise about half of the book, with the practices occupying the other half. The principles’ chapters cover the key concepts: the nature of their systematic application and the reliability of various types of evidence, including family stories. The diagrams illustrate and emphasise the key points of several important concepts, including the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS) on page 15 and Evidence Analysis Models (pages 39, 52 and 63).
    The diagrams and the case studies worked well as they helped me to understand the theoretical concepts such as the GPS particularly in the first half of the book. Some of the diagrams would be useful in a larger format. I could see them being used as a handy A4 cheat sheet to remind researchers to apply ongoing checks to the robustness of their genealogical journey and the accompanying paperwork. [NB. Evidence analysis cheat sheet published as requested.]
    In terms of the practices, each chapter illustrates typical complications of evidence and an appropriate practical strategy to deal with it. For example, the author refers to Ockham’s Razor (p.73) in the context of developing theories to explain inconsistencies, glitches and oddities in family history records. Basically, this means among competing theories, first go for simplicity. By way of simple explanations of record oddities, people may make mistakes because they are tired or distracted, or have protected a reputation, or put too much faith in someone else’s recollections.
    Chapter 15 struck me as particularly interesting coverage of people’s unmovable belief in a certain historical result or outcome which is virtually impossible to shift regardless of the weight of evidence to the contrary. This is clearly an important theme for the author. We will inevitably encounter people like this and may need to have our own strategies to deal with it. I have had the experience of a person demanding that my claims to a certain female ancestor (an assisted immigrant) cease as he had claimed her first. My impression was that he had a strong ongoing belief that his ancestor was a free settler. The only alternative ancestor was a convict and that this person had never considered a convict woman as an ancestor and wasn’t planning to start now.
    The two-page Summary Check list at the end of the book is useful for historians at all levels of skill and experience. I found it a useful device to run over a recent article that I thought was just about finished. It really helped the tidy-up pre-publication.
    As a bookshop shelf browser and buyer, the book cover would not immediately attract my attention. However, I expect that a lot of Carol’s books are distributed via other means. Overall, this book is easy to read, with short chapters broken up with diagrams and case studies. The case studies are detailed enough to illustrate the lesson and very interesting in themselves. Further information on the Drew, Douglas and Captain Thunderbolt case studies is available on the author’s website.
    When you first start out with family history, you are pretty keen to accumulate your very own collection of documents, websites, transcripts and sometimes new relatives. It is only when you have a critical mass of stuff are you able to start recognising the gaps, overlaps and inconsistencies. There are plenty of books and websites out there to assist people with the accumulation phase, roadblocks and brick walls. This book fills an important need around the quality control of your information, write-up and conclusions, by providing theoretical principles, practical exercises and lessons in understanding historical context and human motivation.

Eleanor Vardanega, Journal of the Heraldry and Genealogical Society of Canberra

I had just  found another generation of my ever growing  family that no one else had done any research on and was knee deep in bits of paper, envelopes, and photocopied sheets that would make no sense to anyone else. All that mattered was my new "Rock Goddess", born in 1773, mother of nine children in eleven years, and an author. Just amazing. Her first book was written in 1800, the second in 1817 .In the meantime she translated a book from French to English. This was the same time the rest of my family were eating potatoes, turning to crime and signing their names with a cross. This new hero had knocked the Baby Murderer off the most interesting list in my family.  
    Taking a break from my frantic and disorganized research, I read the book HELP! Historical and Genealogical Truth. How do I separate fact from fiction? by Carol Baxter. It was published 2015, and printed in China. What perfect timing! Suddenly all those bits of paper had to be looked at in a new light. It was "a reminder not to automatically trust what we read in authored works: in books, articles or even government websites." 
    It became important to recheck sources. The section in the book on PRACTICES was a fantastic help, stressing the need of full references and documentation. Oh, if only I had done that first. The book is a great reference, clearly set out, logical and interesting with  terrific  examples of the author's own research making the message clear.. It stresses working from 'Beliefs to Truth". I started my research again, looking from a new angle. The Summary Checklist in the book kept me on track...Organization Set Me Free.!!  I kept hearing " Whose Voice Are We Hearing?"  as I checked my notes.  "Historical records are not produced to help genealogists to trace their families." How True!
    The gaps in my" Rock Goddess's life" are now better understood after researching the times in England's history. More sound advice. What would a widow  of 36 with nine children do? Interestingly enough, along came husband number two from the Isle of Man with enough money to enable her to finish her book before they separated. " Knowledge  empowerment isn't limited to the broader historical context. There are worlds within worlds." Read more history books. My kind of advice! Another one was  If there are " two or more competing theories the simplest explanation is to be preferred" ( Ocklams Razor) I think that this advice is very liberating....no more complex conspiracies. 
    I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to read this great book at such a perfect time. As the author says "Genealogy is a hobby and meant to be fun." It is also time consuming, sometimes rewarding and interesting, involving no housework, gardening or walking two fat dogs. Ponder these great words of the author ' I leave you to walk hand in hand with your ancestors to take pleasure in discovering their  historical journeys." I am off to skip with my "Rock Goddess".

Mim Regan, Journal of the Genealogical Society of the Northern Territory