> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.nationalism.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.nationalism.io/ancestral-group-verification-process/official-records-and-historical-documents.md). # Official records & historical documents A range of official records and historical documents exist that can help with understanding an individual's lineage or how rooted they are to a given locality, region and nation-state. These documents can often be good for understanding if someone has been in a place for a certain period of time but they are commonly not as useful for knowing whether someone is genetically part of an ancestral group or not. For instance, you could prove your lineage goes back multiple generations with a direct family tree and also prove that this family lived in that region or country for an extended period of time. This might all be true but it does not mean they also share the same genetic and ancestral ties with the historical population of that region or nation-state. Documents can be appropriate for proving whether someone has deep rooted connections to a country, culture or nation-state. They could also help with suggesting or proving long-term residence, community continuity, social endogamy or having a stable identity over generations. They often cannot prove genetic purity, total exclusivity of shared ancestry or the absence of admixture. The relevant types of records and documents that are worth considering have been grouped into how much coverage exists across a broad population such as for a nation-state. This can indicate the usefulness of the documents for the use case of verifying the inclusion of an individual into the ancestral population. Documents with limited coverage will often be less suitable as primary tools for verifying the inclusion of individuals into an ancestral population grouping. ## Broad population coverage The following are records and documents that can in some cases have mass-registration or population-wide coverage. This can make them useful for understanding more broadly how the population is tied to the region and nation-state. **Civil registration records** Civic registration records are often strong status records that can help with understanding parent-child linkage. Examples include: * Birth certificates / registrations * Marriage certificates / registrations * Death certificates / registrations **Census and household enumeration records** These records can help with understanding the ties of a family to a specific region over time. Examples include: * Census returns * Population registers * Residence books * Local inhabitant lists * Household enumeration forms * Enumerator books * Household schedules * Household rolls **Residency and local registration records** Records concerned with legal residence, local belonging, registration in a locality and movement in or out of that area. Examples include: * Domicile records * Settlement records * Resident registration records * Municipal registration records * Address registration records * Address cards * Inhabitant registration records * Local citizenship/belonging records * Right-of-residence records * Move-in / move-out registration records **Church and religious records** Records maintained by churches or religious communities are an important information source for periods before civil registrations. Examples include: * Baptism / christening records * Confirmation records * Marriage records * Burial records * Membership rolls or parish status records * Parish household lists * Parish family books * Church census lists * Souls registers / status animarum **Population and family registers and household books** These are continuous or semi-continuous records tracking individuals, families and households over time within a locality. Examples include: * Population registers * Family registers * Family books * Household books * Household rolls * House registers * Parish family books * Parish household registers * Family registration cards * Individual registration cards ## **Limited or uneven coverage** The following records and documents often have coverage that is more selective, situational, or subgroup-specific. This makes them less suitable for verifying group inclusion for entire political systems but they could be used to supplement other sources or to show evidence of exclusion rather than inclusion in the ancestral population. **Citizenship and nationality records** Records that help to prove the legal status of an individual which can help with supporting claims around descent. These records are uneven because they usually matter most when citizenship is acquired, confirmed, disputed, changed or formally documented, rather than for every person in the population in every period. Examples include: * Citizenship certificates and records * Naturalisation applications and records * Nationality confirmation records * Passport applications * Identity registration records * Local citizenship or municipal citizenship records where relevant * National identity system records * Consular records **Immigration and emigration records** Records that help with understanding movement in or out of a region. These records are limited because they only apply to people who moved across borders or administrative boundaries, while non-migrants leave no trace in them. Examples include: * Passenger lists * Entry records * Exit permits * Emigration permits * Immigration files * Border crossing records * Alien registration records * Refugee records * Displacement records * Visa records * Passport control records * Refugee registration records * Deportation or expulsion records * Immigration cards **School and university records** Records can help with residence and ties to a certain region. Coverage for these records can be uneven because access to schooling varied greatly by time, class, gender, region and age. University records are even more selective because only a small share of the population attended. * Enrolment and admission records * Attendance registers * School census lists * Teacher reports * Graduation records * Degree records * Church school rolls **Military records** Records that document individuals who have been involved in the military. These records are uneven because they usually cover only those who could be eligible for service which is often mainly adult men. Their completeness as a source depends heavily on conscription systems, war and archival survival. Examples include: * Conscription lists and registers * Draft records * Military service records * Pension records * Officer records * Veteran records * Military census lists in wartime **Notarial, tax and property records** Records that can help with understanding a family's history in a certain region across generations. Coverage is uneven because these records tend to favour property holders, taxpayers, household heads or people involved in formal legal transactions, leaving poorer or more mobile populations less visible. Examples include: * Wills and probate files * Land deeds * Title deeds * Property transfers * Mortgage records * Inheritance records * Lease records * Dowry records * Land registers * Tax registers * Estate maps * Manorial records * Probate records * Estate inventories * Tenancy agreements * Cadastral records * Rent rolls **Court and administrative records** Records from the state that can help with understanding a family's residence and ties to the region. These records are uneven because they usually arise only when a person enters a legal, social or administrative process, meaning many ordinary residents never appear in them at all. Examples include: * Guardianship records * Adoption records * Legitimisation records * Name-change records * Parish dispute records * Civic lawsuits * Registration appeals * Licensing records * Local administrative petitions ## Suitability of official records and historical documents **Suitable for reversing recent citizenships** A nation-state may want to reverse the process of naturalisation that happened in recent decades. Existing records and documents could be highly suitable here as they could have full coverage or close to full coverage of everyone who was naturalised and given citizenship in that time period. The process would be more focussed on verifying individuals for exclusion from the population group rather than verifying every individual in the population to determine their inclusion. This is a faster and more simple way to reverse recent changes however when used on an existing civic system it would not achieve a reliable outcome for protecting the long-established ancestral population. Instead this would reverse the clock to a historical period and then resume again, meaning that demographic change would continue and the ancestral population could still lose their self-determination due to ongoing demographic change. **Suitable for providing supportive evidence for proving lineage** Although these example records and documents by themselves are not commonly sufficient for proving inclusion into the ancestral population on a genetics basis it is still useful for providing evidence about how long someone and their ancestors have been in a certain region which could be useful as supportive evidence with any genetic related verification. If someone matched the genetic reference panel and had very strong records and documents as evidence to support their genetic ancestral ties it could result in using their sample as part of the genetic reference panel. The opposite could also be useful where genetic testing might be challenged by records and documents that might provide evidence that someone's ancestors were not from a particular region. **Not suitable as a primary method for ancestral verification** These documents and records can help with providing evidence that someone has a certain lineage with a group of people but it doesn’t often prove that this group of people are part of the same ancestral group who have shared ancestry. It is therefore not a sufficiently reliable method for verifying the inclusion of each individual in a long-established ancestral population.