Issue 48.11
Family history research can sometimes leave us feeling a little scatterbrained. While we don’t want to be thought of as a person incapable of serious, connected thought, but sometimes we can research that way. Lack of focus is a rookie mistake and we are unlikely to stay on task, especially when the Internet is involved in our research. It is so easy to become sidetracked!
We have to focus about the person and event we seek. We must have someone specific in mind. We don’t want to just research without anyone specific, just wanting to find ancestors. We need to have a family group record and ask questions. Experienced researchers work on one specific event in one person’s life at a time. Look at the pedigree chart or family group record, what is missing? What would you like to know? What would you like to prove? Was grandma really only 14 when she got married? Did great grandpa really die before his father did? Why was great grandma born in Michigan, christened in Scotland and married in Louisiana? Is that really the right person?
An experienced researcher focuses in and has a goal, such as, “I want to document Ralph Wilfred Gibbs birth.” The nature of the event suggests a variety of sources that might have information about that event. Further, veterans carry with them a well-documented family group record showing that individual ancestor so the researcher can review the clues. They tend to continue to research that one event in one person’s life until they find it. They tend to stay focused. My husband refers to it as “She is in hot pursuit!”
Rookies move to a different family before finishing most of the research on the family they started. The consequence of that is that clues about individuals are embedded in their connections to their family and associates. Failure to understand the family and community results in fewer clues and less evidence. Shallow research results in less correlation and analysis of records or a poor set of conclusions.
Experienced researchers understand the value of researching the members of one family until all the members are well-documented before switching to a new family. Research may skip around a bit among members of the same family, but stay within the family until it is done.
For more information, contact Shanna Jones shannasjones@msn.com (435) 628-4900.