§ 1313 [Family Reputation as Family History Evidence]

When family members talk among themselves about family history, those conversations can be used as evidence in court. This covers things like births, marriages, divorces, deaths, parent-child relationships, race, and ancestry.

Normally, secondhand information is not allowed in court because of the hearsay rule. This rule creates an exception because family members are often the best source of information about their own family history. If your relatives have long understood something to be true about the family, that shared knowledge can be presented as evidence.