What Are You Looking For?

Courtesy of Amethyst Studio from The Noun Project

What Do You Seek?

There's an old story about the cop walking his beat when he encounters an old man on his hands and knees under the street light. "What are you looking for, buddy?" The reply: "I'm looking for my car keys." Cop says, "there are no cars right close. Where did you lose them?" Reply: "I dropped them when getting out of my car, but the light is here!"

Do you sometimes feel that way while you are searching for records, and finding nothing? Have you considered that Ancestry or FamilySearch might not have the records you seek? Or that the record you wish for was never created?

What's the Plan?

When I began doing genealogy research, I never had a plan, didn't know one could plan research, and I'm sure I would have thought the idea of taking research time to create a plan was ridiculous! 

These days, some of my research is still unplanned. After studying Research Like A Pro¹ though, now I make at least a general plan, even if I don't write it out, because I saw how much progress can be made by creating and following a plan.

Develop Routines

Also, it  helps to develop some routines. For instance, if I find my family of interest in a pre-1880 census, I generally take the time to link each person in the family to that census when I find it. Because relationships are not stated in the record, linking is not automatic at Ancestry, unless others have found and linked the family. Beware of accepting those statements of relationship without question, because, for instance, step-children are not always properly attributed to the proper parent, so you will need to go back and use the "edit relationships" menu to keep your tree correct. If the children are already properly listed with their parents, linking each is pretty easy; you just go back to the record, click their name, and save, until you've finished all the children. If there is a new name, it's worthwhile to open another tab, add the child to the family, then go back to the census record and add them. Otherwise, they will be added as an unconnected person and you'll need to add the parents after. 

Routines are not the same as research plans, but developing good habits helps ensure that you remember to capture all the details when dealing with each record, so you don't have to go back and re-do the research later! 

I thought about the topic "why create a research plan" when thinking about my garden. Today it's very wet, and even though I have time to go out and work, I'm writing this blog post instead! because I don't want to get soaked. When planting seeds, like the top image shows, the gardener needs a plan! Planting watermelon seeds in April is a fool's errand in the Puget Sound area, because they'll just rot in the ground. On the other hand, radishes and lettuce will outgrow the weeds! So where will you plant your radish and lettuce seeds? You gotta have a plan. 

What's the Question?

GDJ on Pixabay

A genealogy research plan begins with a question. Who are you looking for? No really, precisely who? The more detailed your description of your goal, the more likely you are to find what you seek. Here is a question left over from my last research project: When and where did William McBee die? He was born about 1821 in Grainger County, Tennessee, son of George H. McBee and Martha Willis, married Louisa Smith before 1840, and is last found in records in 1860 Yreka, California, living with the family of his mother's younger brother. 

What Do You Know?

Once you have a question specific enough, the next step is to list everything you know about this person. Examine every record already found for every detail. While doing this, you may find, as I have done, that some of the answers are already answered. In my experience though, once an answer is found, five more questions come to mind! Also, it's OK to have more than one question, but you will search most effectively if you tackle them one at a time.

What Do You Think?

What is your hypothesis? In other words, what do you expect to find? Although I find the Willis family with whom William was living in 1860 in later census records, not a trace of William has yet been unearthed. I do hope that as more old newspapers come online, eventually I will find some mention of him after 1860. I do not hope to find a death certificate so early, but confirmation that the William Macabee who is buried in the same cemetery as his younger sister Angeline McBee Bright is or is not my William would be welcome, even if the precise date and place of death remains unknown. A road trip to Coos County, Oregon Pioneer Cemetery might answer that question. 

Research Strategy

What is the best place to look, to prove and disprove your hypothesis? Start listing specific record sets and where to best consult them - as many as you can think of. Then begin to rank them, because, for instance, finding a birth, marriage or death record might answer your research question fully. But if such a record cannot be found, what is the next best source to consult? Move from the general to the specific to narrow the focus if necessary, and don't discount online indexes to help you zero point you to accessible records.

Log It!

Now that you have ranked your sources, get them into your research log in order, and write the beginning of the citations. If you neglect to do this, you may have to back-track, and that is never fun! (Ask how I know. 😖) Note the date you searched the database, what your search terms were, and the result -- even if you found nothing, and finish the citation. At least you won't go back again unless you're searching for something or someone new, or a search term (such as a spelling variation) you forgot before. Why create citations for non-productive searches? You may need to cite negative evidence.

Locality Guides

One of the parts of Research Like A Pro process which was entirely new to me was creating my own locality guides. I really like having these available to me and add to them over time. The more you use them, the more valuable they are. A good place to begin is the FamilySearch Research Wiki page for each locality, and Linkpendium, CyndisList and GenWeb pages are often wonderful links to datasets too. Organizing all the links is a huge time-saver. 

Write As You Go

Finally, as you research, capture your thoughts in your research document. I use Google Docs because they are accessible anywhere, but you can use anything that suits you. Write as you go, every note gets you closer to finishing the research report! It's easy when it is mostly already written.

Peter K. PL at The Noun Project

Success!

Whether you find all the answers you sought or not, when you return to this person, family, event or locality, you'll have full access to your research process and ideas for further research. Now your seeds have roots, and will continue to grow. 

Final question: Are we there yet?

1. Elder, Diana, and Nicole Dyer, Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist’s Guide, (Highland, Utah: Family Locket Books, an imprint of Family Locket Genealogists LLC, 2018).

Valorie Zimmerman