Methodology
TBAR uses a structured evidence method for publication, broadcast, development and professional decision-making. The purpose is not to manufacture certainty. It is to show what the available record can genuinely bear, what remains disputed and what further work would be required for stronger closure.
01
Each material claim is traced to its earliest identifiable evidential basis and then tested against the strongest available sources. Original records, contemporary narratives, later memoirs, scholarship and modern retellings are kept separate rather than blended together.
See it applied →02
Sources are assessed for authorship, date, purpose, transmission, independence, proximity and known limitations. Earlier is not automatically better; a source must still be judged on what it was created to record and how reliably it survives.
See it applied →03
Where accounts conflict, the contradiction is stated rather than hidden. Competing versions are tested against chronology, provenance, purpose, independence and evidential weight.
See it applied →04
Later storytelling may compress, dramatise or harden uncertainty into apparent fact. The audit identifies where the public version has travelled beyond the underlying source.
See it applied →05
Findings are classified according to what the source base can support: corroborated, supported with qualification, disputed, unsubstantiated, contradicted or not verifiable from the available record.
See the sample dossier →06
Commissioned work records the source basis, known limitations and practical action required. Where relevant, findings translate into retain, qualify, attribute, revise, remove or research-further decisions.
See the research trail →On uncertainty, source control and AI
If a source cannot be traced, a relevant archive remains unopened, or surviving evidence is insufficient to settle a question, the limitation is recorded rather than filled by assumption.
Dossiers can include source schedules, archive references, source type, evidential role and access limitations. Copies or images are supplied only where licensing and repository rules permit.
AI tools may assist discovery, organisation and drafting, but they are not cited as proof. Every load-bearing factual finding is checked against a named source before delivery.
The final product tells the client what the available evidence supports, what requires qualification, what remains disputed, what cannot yet be verified and what additional work would be needed for stronger closure.