Family Tree Health Assessment Tool: Build a Solid Foundation

The Foundation Problem

Just like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, if the foundations of your family tree are faulty, it will impact the entire structure. The first three generations are particularly critical. If you have incorrect information about just one person in these generations, up to a quarter of your family tree could be inaccurate.

When foundations are weak, genealogists waste years researching the wrong families. They duplicate effort by repeatedly checking the same questionable information. And they include the wrong people in their family history.

Key Takeaway: The Tree Health Assessment Tool helps you evaluate the strength of evidence for each conclusion in your family tree. Green is strong, yellow is weak and red is absent. Use the tool with a family tree chart, family group sheet, or a table.

This post was originally published in December 2020 and last updated on 23 June 2025.

The Solution: Start from a Solid Foundation

A solid foundation is established by having the correct people, correct relationships and correct information.

One of the fundamental principles in genealogical research is that you should start with yourself and work backwards in time.[1] This is based on the premise that you are the only solid foundation point.

But that really only applies when you are starting your family history. As you build your family tree, you establish multiple solid foundation points.

Another fundamental principle in family history is to work from the known and move into the unknown. This is basically saying, you need to work outwards from any of your solid foundation points.

The Tree Health Assessment Tool helps you identify your solid foundation points and develop more of them.

It will help you create good quality family history, ensuring that your research is accurate, comprehensive and well-documented.

Why You Need the Tree Health Assessment Tool

You must include source citations in your family history, to show where you got the information and to help you find the source again. But source citations are almost useless unless they provide sufficient evidence to support your conclusions.

The Tree Health Assessment Tool helps you systematically evaluate the strength of the evidence for your conclusions.

The Tree Health Assessment Tool improves your genealogy research by:

• revealing critical gaps where one missing source could unlock years of research
• providing clear direction so you always know your next step
• giving you multiple solid foundation points to begin new research confidently
• providing clear starting points to pick up your research after you’ve taken a break
• highlighting inconsistencies that prevent you from pursuing incorrect family lines
• visually documenting the accuracy of your family tree for your own benefit and for sharing with others.

Introduction to the Tree Health Assessment Tool

The Tree Health Assessment Tool helps you examine and document the strength of evidence for each conclusion in your family tree.

It uses a simple color-coding system:

• Green: Multiple independent sources provide strong evidence supporting a reasonable and defensible conclusion
• Yellow: Some evidence exists but gaps remain that require further research
• Red: Evidence is absent or significantly inadequate, such as no source citations, unreliable sources, serious inconsistencies, or substantial doubts about conclusions
• Uncolored: Not yet researched.

Simple Rule: Independent sources are those created for different purposes with information supplied by different informants. A birth certificate and marriage certificate are usually independent. A death certificate and headstone are often not.

Instructions for each step are provided in How to Apply the Family Tree Health Assessment Tool.

Step 1: Apply the Tree Health Assessment Tool to Your Direct Line

It’s a good idea to start by applying the Tree Health Assessment Tool to your direct line ancestors. These are: your parents, your grandparents, your great grandparents and so on. The first three generations, in particular, need to be solid foundation points before you take your research further.

Use a table to document the evidence that you have the correct people and the correct relationships between those people. Then apply the results to a family tree chart. This provides a useful visual representation of the health of your family tree.

Step 2: Apply the Tree Health Assessment Tool to a Family Group

Next you should expand your analysis to include people beyond your direct line. Focus on family groups, as this provides context, stronger evidence and more interesting stories.

In family history, a family group is typically defined as mother, father, and their children. When the children marry (or have children of their own) they establish their own family group. However, different types of families exist and the tool can be applied to any family group that you define.

Genealogists often use family group sheets, and the results of the assessment can easily be incorporated into these documents. You can download one from FamilySearch.

Step 3: Apply the Tree Health Assessment Tool to any Conclusion

Once the evidence for your direct line has been established, you can expand the use of the tool to any conclusion in your family history. Just examine the evidence and colour code the conclusion.

If you want to do this systematically, you can create a table to record the results. A table version of the tool allows you to get a big picture of the accuracy of your family history across multiple family lines.

Use Your Tree Health Assessments to Improve Your Family History

Good genealogy research requires a solid foundation. The Tree Health Assessment Tool provides a systematic method to evaluate and strengthen your family tree’s roots.

My article, How to Apply the Family Tree Health Assessment Tool, provides instructions and demonstrates how the Tree Health Assessment Tool supports your research at every step of the research process. Break Through Brick Walls with the Tree Health Assessment Tool demonstrates how the tool can be used to solve brick wall problems.

More information

For more articles and information about this tool, head to the Tree Health Assessment Tool page. You can also download your free copy of the THA Tool guide on my Free Stuff page.

For more of my articles about planning your family history, go to the Plan page.

Read more about improving the quality of your family history in my book, The Good Genealogist.

Reference:

[1] Cassie Gilmartin and Shaun Gilmartin, The Family History Book, Sydney, 2024, pp.8-10

About the author

Danielle Lautrec is a genealogy educator, researcher, and author of The Good Genealogist. With qualifications in history, family history, and historical archaeology, she teaches for the Society of Australian Genealogists.