Analysis

The fifteen-attribute shape: one specification every candidate is scored against

Every candidate for the Braintree emigrant is tested against a single specification of what the man and his household must look like, stated as fifteen attributes, each a scale rather than a binary and none of them mandatory: the surname Gurney or a variant; a household containing Mary, Richard and/or John Jr. in that order; a Mary born about 1628; a Richard born about 1630; a John born about 1633; a father named John; a mother named Mary; the father born about 1603; a John-and-Mary marriage about 1622-28; alternatively a John-and-Mary marriage about 1628-40 under a second-marriage hypothesis; the father's own father named Richard; a region known for Great Migration participation; a region connected to Weymouth, Massachusetts or the colonial John's cohorts; the father a tailor; and an event about 1636-39 whose context could support emigration, read throughout as a documented push event. Holding the specification separate from any candidate's own evidence is what makes the candidates comparable at all.

Confidence: High

Topic file location: Identity — the shape, the matrix, and the two families