What "human checked" actually means
It is an easy thing to claim and a hard thing to hold to. So here is exactly what we mean by it, and what each label on a story is promising.
Five labels, five specific promises
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- Archive
The material came from a named archive, record office or documented collection, and we can tell you which one. Listed in the story's sources.
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- Source checked
Every factual claim in the story traces to a source we hold. Where two sources disagree, we say so rather than picking the tidier one.
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- Reconstruction
An image is an interpretation, not a photograph of the past. It is built from documented evidence — an engraving, surviving fabric, measured detail — and labelled on screen wherever it appears. We never present a reconstruction as a record.
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- On this spot
The location is exact. You can stand where the story happened, and the practical detail on the page has been checked on the ground.
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- Oral history
Someone's first-hand account, recorded with their permission and used on terms they agreed.
Four different people can say "yes", and they mean different things
- EditorialThe story reads clearly, and nothing has been overstated for effect.
- Local knowledgeSomeone who knows the place confirms it matches what is actually there.
- HistoricalA specialist confirms the history and the interpretation are defensible.
- RightsThe rights-holder has agreed to their material being used, on recorded terms.
A story is only published when the checks it needs have all been made. Where a story has had editorial and local review but not yet a specialist historical review, we say so on the page rather than implying more scrutiny than it has had.
Real stories. Real places. Human checked.
We use source-linked local knowledge and work with the people who know the story or place. AI helps us research and build these stories faster, but people remain responsible for what gets published.
- Sources checked
- Human reviewed
- Rights respected
What the machine does, and what it never does
What it does. It helps us search records faster, draft and redraft, and build visual reconstructions from documented evidence that would otherwise take weeks of illustration.
What it never does. Decide what is true, sign off a story, or publish anything. A person is responsible for every claim on this site, and if something here is wrong that is a person's mistake, not a machine's.
If you think we have got something wrong, tell us. We would rather be corrected than be confidently mistaken.
Have something we should know about?
Records, photographs, or the kind of knowledge that only comes from paying attention to one place for thirty years.