Short answer. Yes, under Rule 130, Section 42's pedigree exception. Reputation or tradition within a family about a member's pedigree can be received in evidence, but only if it existed before the current dispute arose and the witness testifying about it is also a member of that family, by blood, marriage, or adoption.
What the law says
The reputation or tradition existing in a family previous to the controversy, in respect to the pedigree of anyone of its members, may be received in evidence if the witness testifying thereon be also a member of the family
Rule 130, Section 42 — Family reputation or tradition regarding pedigree. Read the full provision →
What the law says
Entries in family bibles or other family books or charts, engraving on rings, family portraits and the like, may be received as evidence of pedigree.
Rule 130, Section 42 — Family reputation or tradition regarding pedigree. Read the full provision →
What counts as family reputation or tradition
Section 42 covers the reputation or tradition existing in a family previous to the controversy, in respect to the pedigree of anyone of its members. Pedigree here means the kind of fact that reputation and tradition are actually good at preserving — who someone's parents were, how family members are related, dates of birth, marriage, and death — the sort of thing families discuss and pass down long before any lawsuit is a possibility.
Two conditions that keep the door narrow
Two requirements limit this exception. First, the reputation or tradition must have existed previous to the controversy — it cannot be something the family started saying only after a dispute broke out and someone had a stake in a particular version. Second, the witness relaying it must also be a member of the family, whether by consanguinity, affinity, or adoption. An outsider repeating what they once heard the family say does not fit this exception, however sincerely they believe it.
Physical family records count too
Beyond spoken reputation, the same section extends to physical traces of pedigree: entries in family bibles or other family books or charts, engraving on rings, family portraits and the like. These are treated the same way as oral family reputation — items a family kept and relied on as its own internal record of who belonged to whom, made and maintained without a lawsuit in mind.
Why this rule exists at all
Pedigree facts from generations back are often impossible to prove with a birth certificate or a witness who was actually present. The law responds by trusting a family's own long-held reputation about its members' pedigree, precisely because that reputation typically formed for reasons having nothing to do with any later legal fight. Cases involving inheritance, filiation, or identifying an heir often turn on exactly this kind of evidence when no other record survives.
Related provisions
- Rule 130, Section 42 — Family reputation or tradition regarding pedigree
- Rule 130, Section 41 — Act or declaration about pedigree
- Rule 130, Section 43 — Common reputation