Repo Evidence Review - 23 April 2026

Summary

This review applies the repo rules in INGEST.md and repo_rules.yaml: raw artifacts are immutable, source records are the evidence layer, person records are user-acceptance gated, and unresolved people stay in 07_leads/.

Starting implementation state differed from the planning snapshot because a new Clarence Darrow timeline source had been scaffolded before this pass. During the review, additional Darrow relationship files already present in the working tree were incorporated rather than rolled back:

Check Starting state After this review
People 20 20
Sources 75 75
Events 32 32
Leads 23 24
Human-input items 22 total, 21 open 23 total, 22 open
Validation errors 1 0
Validation warnings 6 3
Media entries 146 146

Commands run:

  • python3 scripts/agent_preflight.py
  • python3 scripts/validate_records.py --json
  • git status --short
  • source, event, person, lead, and media-manifest cross-reference checks
  • python3 scripts/build_indexes.py

No files in 05_raw/ were edited. New records remain status: proposed; no record was promoted to accepted.

Validation Disposition

Item Disposition
source-university-of-minnesota-law-library-clarence-darrow-timeline.md missing linked_people Fixed by adding linked_people: [].
Same source missing required online_summary.extracted_facts.subject_name Fixed by replacing the generic summary key with subject_name, source_site, and summary_text.
source-birth-index-edwin-pownceby-1840.md missing birth_date Fixed with year-level birth_date: "1840" and a note that it is not an exact date.
source-birth-index-william-pownceby-1840.md missing birth_date Fixed with year-level birth_date: "1840" and a note that it is not an exact date.
person-lola-louise-seem-1909.md points to unrecorded person-samuel-henry-seem-1870 Left open. A Samuel lead already exists; changing 01_people/ must wait for accepted evidence and user direction.
person-walter-george-ponceby-1873.md points to unrecorded person-margaret-mac-kennon-ponceby-1869 Left open. Margaret is strongly evidenced as Walter's wife, but she is not a canonical person yet.
person-walter-george-ponceby-1873.md points to unrecorded person-edwin-pownceby-1840 Left open. Edwin is a parent lead pending GRO certificate or stronger corroboration.

Accuracy Findings

P1 - Canonical person records contain unresolved relationship targets

Three canonical person relationships point to IDs that do not exist. The issue is not merely cosmetic: generated person indexes make Samuel Seem, Margaret Mac Kennon, and Edwin Pownceby appear as canonical tree links even though the repo rules require lead or proposed-source handling until user acceptance.

Affected records:

  • 01_people/person-lola-louise-seem-1909.md
  • 01_people/person-walter-george-ponceby-1873.md

Recommended action: keep the warnings visible until the user accepts supporting sources. Then either promote/create canonical people or revise the relationship fields deliberately. Do not silently repoint the person records to leads.

P1 - source-obituary-lola-1957 is a source stub without an artifact

02_sources/source-obituary-lola-1957.md has repository_file: null, placeholder date/place notes, and no preserved raw clipping. This should not be used to settle Lola Louise Seem Armstrong's death date. The public Samuel/Minnie family page gives 3 April 1957, while the stub currently uses 2 April 1957.

Action taken: added HIR-20260423-023 so the missing obituary/death-record artifact is archived as a human-input blocker.

P2 - Several events are based on index, summary, or identity-note evidence

INGEST.md says event records should be skipped when a source is an index, secondary transcription, or merely implies an event. Current events that need review under that rule include:

Recommended action: keep these proposed, mark them as review targets, and replace or supplement them only when image-backed certificates, registrations, or service records arrive. The Gordon 1984 death event is safer because it includes an image- backed death certificate in addition to the index.

P2 - Document-backed sources with concrete events are not normalized

The cross-reference pass found several document-backed sources with dated facts but no event record:

Recommended action: create proposed events only after the target person/lead model is clear. For Paul Armstrong, the existing birth event should likely cite both birth-register sources because they are separate, independent artifacts for the same birth.

P2 - Duplicate media hash reviewed and metadata corrected

The duplicate SHA-256 reported by preflight was checked on 23 April 2026:

The two PDF logical paths were byte-identical two-page FamilySearch downloads with the McKinnon/Conrad marriage citation page, so the birth-register additional-copy.pdf label was misleading rather than independent birth evidence. The erroneous birth-register PDF manifest entry was removed, the legitimate McKinnon/Conrad original-with-citation entry was kept, and the remaining birth-register additional-copy.jpg entry was linked to source-boston-birth-register-donald-edwin-ponceby-1902.

Do not delete the stale ignored/raw filesystem copies without user approval; cleanup is tracked in inbox-cleanup-audit-2026-04-23 and HIR-20260423-027.

P2 - Some accepted sources are low-confidence or secondary

source-online-summary-arthur-j-iacofano-2026 is status: accepted but confidence: low. This is not a validation error, and user acceptance controls status, but downstream canonical updates should prefer the accepted 1941 marriage, accepted 1940 census, and accepted 1920 census over this online summary.

P3 - The Darrow comparison lane is valid but still only a clue

source-university-of-minnesota-law-library-clarence-darrow-timeline.md, lead-clarence-seward-darrow-1857.md, and darrow-relationship-shirley-armstrong-clarence-darrow-2026-04-23 now form a schema-valid comparison lane. Treat it as a possible Darrow surname research clue only. It does not currently connect Minnie Eva Darrow to Clarence Darrow's Ohio family.

Person Citation Matrix

Person Current evidence posture Review notes
Daniel Schauwecker No source record surfaced in this pass. Medium-confidence canonical ancestor; needs source-backed lineage review before expansion.
Johann Jakob Gutbrodt No source record surfaced in this pass. Alternate name Goodbread is present but not source-mapped in current indexes.
John Armstrong Proposed 1850 census places Jeremiah in household. Relationship inference is not direct; HIR-20260423-022 covers stronger proof.
Michael Schauwecker No source record surfaced in this pass. Parent link to Daniel should be treated as unsupported until sources are added or located.
Jeremiah Gardner Armstrong Proposed 1850 and 1880 census context. Age conflict exists in 1850; relationship to John is implied, not proven.
Mary Margaret Schauweker No direct source record surfaced in this pass. Possible connection to Mary Shawaker/Schauweker remains unresolved.
Walter George Ponceby Proposed 1901 marriage, 1916 attestation, LAC service, and CVWM sources. Strong proposed evidence, but spouse and father targets are unrecorded canonical IDs.
Thomas Herman Armstrong Proposed 1880 census and Paul birth-register evidence. Birth date conflict: person record says 1878, 1880 census implies about 1875.
Mary J. Laurenzo Accepted 1920, 1940, and 1941 Iacofano evidence. Death, exact birth date, maiden spelling, and Italian origin remain open.
Catherine Mackie Horne Proposed Alberta indexes, 1926 census, identity note, online summary. Mackie/Horne/McKay identity and death-date conflict remain unresolved.
Donald Edwin Ponceby Proposed Boston birth records and later proposed indexes/manifests. Later spouse trail with Jane, Dorothy, and Helen remains unresolved.
Paul Edward Armstrong Proposed birth registers plus accepted Shirley birth certificate as parent evidence. Birth event should cite both Wood County register artifacts.
Lola Louise Seem Accepted Shirley birth certificate as mother; proposed Lola birth certificate. Death date depends on a stub source; Samuel parent link is broken until accepted evidence supports canonical update.
Arthur Iacofano Accepted 1941 marriage, 1940 census, and supporting sources. John/Giovanni remains a lead; mother Mary is canonical.
Mary Ricciardi Accepted marriage and obituary evidence. Birth and parentage still look less developed than spouse/death evidence.
Gordon Francis Ponceby Multiple strong proposed adult records. 1926 Alberta census age conflict blocks birth-path acceptance.
Shirley Jean Armstrong Accepted Ohio birth certificate and accepted birth event. Spouse link to Gordon rests on proposed marriage evidence.
Tony Iacofano Accepted 1971 notice and Mary obituary context. Parent/spouse relationships appear plausible but should remain tied to accepted sources only.
Gayle Ponceby Proposed birth certificate plus accepted obituary context. Birth certificate is high-confidence but still proposed.
Christopher Iacofano Accepted obituary context supports family placement. Direct birth/parent source was not surfaced in this pass.

Missed Clues And Lead Candidates

Candidate or clue Source reference Blocking questions
Margaret Mac Kennon/Ponceby Walter/Margaret 1901 marriage sources; Donald Edwin 1902 birth sources; Walter service file Should Margaret be represented as a lead before eventual person promotion? Can PEI baptism/census records prove her as a child of Donald McKinnon and Elizabeth Jardine?
Edwin Pownceby and Constance Koziell Walter/Margaret 1901 marriage sources; Edwin GRO birth index Does Edwin's GRO certificate name parents? Can English census/parish records connect Edwin, Constance, Walter, and possible sibling William?
William Pownceby source-birth-index-william-pownceby-1840 Is William a sibling of Edwin or an unrelated same-page Pownceby entry? Hold until Edwin's certificate is evaluated.
John Duncan MacKinnon source-death-record-for-john-duncan-mackinnon-1926 Is John Duncan a sibling or close collateral of Margaret Mac Kennon/Ponceby and Donald G. McKinnon? Can PEI records tie all three to Donald McKinnon and Elizabeth Jardine?
Ellen Gately source-death-record-for-ellen-gately-1903 Why is this orphan source in the repo? Is Ellen tied to a known Boston household, witness, in-law, neighbor, or unrelated upload?
Helen M. Ponceby source-immigration-passenger-list-donald-helen-ponceby-1957; lead-helen-m-ponceby-1957 Was Helen Donald Edwin Ponceby's spouse, and is she the same person as Jane N. or a distinct later spouse?
Clarence/Ammirus Darrow line source-university-of-minnesota-law-library-clarence-darrow-timeline; lead-clarence-seward-darrow-1857; darrow-relationship-shirley-armstrong-clarence-darrow-2026-04-23 Does Minnie Eva Darrow's direct parentage connect to the Trumbull/Mahoning/Monroe Darrow lines, or is this only a same-surname clue?
Rev. A. D. McKinnon Walter/Margaret 1901 marriage sources Is the officiant a relative or community contact in the PEI/Boston McKinnon network, or simply a minister with the same surname?

No additional lead files were created by this evidence-review pass. The Darrow lead already present in the working tree was included in the review and indexes. The remaining table rows are candidate lanes that need either user acceptance, stronger document images, or a clearer family/time/place hypothesis before adding more lead records.

Evidence Targets

Agent-doable local work

  • Review the duplicate media hash and decide whether the additional Donald birth copy is a stale logical path, a mislabeled artifact, or an intentional duplicate.
  • Create proposed leads/events for Walter/Margaret/Edwin only after deciding the lead model; do not edit Walter's person record yet.
  • Update the Paul birth event to cite both Wood County birth-register sources if the user wants event normalization cleanup.
  • Review orphan source records with linked_people: [], especially Ellen Gately and John Duncan MacKinnon, before creating any new people.
  • Keep source-obituary-lola-1957 out of evidence conclusions until an artifact is added or the stub is superseded.

Public-search targets

  • Search for Donald Edwin Ponceby marriage records with Jane N., Dorothy D., and Helen M. variants in Ohio, Michigan, and possible cruise/passport contexts.
  • Search for Lola Louise Armstrong/Seem obituary, death notice, cemetery, and Ohio death-record evidence around 2-3 April 1957.
  • Search PEI records for children of Donald McKinnon and Elizabeth Jardine, especially Margaret, John Duncan, and Donald G.
  • Search English records for Walter Pownceby/Ponceby, Edwin Pownceby, Constance Koziell, and William Pownceby before ordering additional certificates.
  • Search Darrow parentage only after Minnie Eva Darrow's parents are found from direct records; otherwise Clarence Darrow remains a same-surname clue.

Human-input-required targets

Existing HIR items already cover the high-value blockers:

  • HIR-20260423-001 through HIR-20260423-009: Ponceby, Alberta, Ohio, and Pownceby ordered/signed-in records.
  • HIR-20260423-010 through HIR-20260423-015: Iacofano obituary, residence, naturalization, and AR-2 paths.
  • HIR-20260423-016 and HIR-20260423-018 through HIR-20260423-022: Armstrong, Seem, Darrow, Hill, and older Armstrong lineage review.
  • HIR-20260423-023: newly added blocker for Lola Louise Armstrong's obituary or equivalent death artifact.

Final State

  • Validation after schema fixes: 0 errors, 3 warnings.
  • Final record counts: 20 people, 75 sources, 32 events, 24 leads, and 23 human-input items.
  • Remaining warnings are intentional review gates on canonical person relationships, not source-schema problems.
  • Indexes were rebuilt after edits.
  • No raw artifact was edited.
  • No new accepted records were created.