Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Reports

-

Courtesy PublicDomainImages.net "Car Burning Rubber"

Deadlines

I used to dread writing reports, from grade school on. Deadlines caused dread, and there was no pleasure (or learning) from scrabbling together all the sources into something readable. When I began doing genealogy research, writing reports of my findings never entered my mind! Not even when I found massive help from various books and articles. I never saw myself then as a contributor to the body of knowledge; only as a consumer. 


From Consumer to Contributor

https://www.wikitree.com/

Two things changed my viewpoint. The first was finding Wikitree, where I took responsibility for the linked profiles for many of the family members I had found through my years of research. The Wikitree focus on sourcing, collaboration and narrative, not just a bare skein of facts, began to change that "consumer" stance, into becoming a contributor. 


Focus and Collaboration

The other event that taught me how to contribute better was our SKCGS Study Group of the book Research Like A Pro, where we learned to focus and plan the research, write citations into a research log, and write as new facts are found. I found writing timelines, in particular, profoundly powerful. And I'm happy to say that while timelines are incredibly important, they help produce stories, which I've come to see as the end product of all our work. 


Writing as Analysis

Sometimes it seems that "writing it up" takes too much time, time that I need for other things, like research! What I have found though, is that writing time is a valuable - even critical - part of the research process. Writing opens up another part of my brain and a whole new level of analysis. All of those good strategies we've studied about such as gathering context, researching the FANs (Friends, Associates and Neighbors) and writing good citations come into play as the story is written. And we cannot meet the GPS (Genealogical Proof Standard) until that report is written and shared.


Sharing and Collaboration

Collaboration is a wonderful part of this process as well. I've come to value the feedback of my readers, which is why I love comments on blog posts! If you want some peer review before publishing, send your writing to our Family History Writing group: https://skcgs.groups.io/g/Family-History-Writing.

I urge you to think about writing reports in a new light. School would have been a lot more fun for me had I learned all this when young and it is good news that my research does not have to die when I'm gone - the stories will live on, at least those I've written and shared. We would love to publish your story here on the blog. Submit to m.strickland@skcgs.org and thank you.


Valorie Zimmerman


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Looking for a Needle in a Haystack? GAME CHANGER at FamilySearch

-
Image
Generated with Bing ImageCreator (AI), March 13, 2024 Where is YOUR Needle, Your Missing Record? Genealogical Proof Standard When we use the GPS (Genealogical Proof Standard) as our guide, we all know that "exhaustive research" can be both tedious and exhausting. Is life long enough to search page by page through all the counties where all the members of a family might have lived, paid taxes, bought, leased or sold property, made a will or died intestate? It is possible that the new Full Text Search at FamilySearch will  eventually  allow us to do just that. It has been estimated that 75% or more of the records at FamilySearch were browsable but not searchable; the only indexes those found in the records themselves. Those records are certainly attainable by using those indexes and browsing to the record of interest, but the process is tedious, often frustrating, and slow. And once found, the record must be read and transcribed to be useful. This new Full Text Search tackles a...
Read more

What's the Question?

-
Image
We genealogists are often told by experienced researchers how important it is to begin with a research question. I resisted doing this for a long time, but now that I use a series of questions to guide my research, the search is more focused and actually finds more of the history of the family I'm investigating. I use a Google Doc as the  research proceeds, where I keep the question(s), the plan, timelines, checklist of resources to search, etc. all in one place. I've seen others use spreadsheets in the same way, perhaps splitting up things in tabs (Excel or Google Sheets). I prefer a document because I add source citations as I find them and I can begin writing up the case right there in the doc as the hypotheses are proven. Specific Questions in Previous Successes As beginners we often have no clue how much and what details we already know about a person, event or relationship, so it's hard to specify what we want to know. But when looking back at successful research, it ...
Read more

Help Save This Abused and Neglected Cemetery

-
Image
Screen capture from Google Maps History In an exchange of emails this past week in both the main SKCGS group, and in the Washington-State-Genealogy group, many facts were revealed about the history of the I.O.O.F. Comet Lodge Cemetery, also known as the Old Burying Ground, the Georgetown Cemetery, the Graham Street Burying Ground and maybe more.  FindAGrave sums it up this way: "Since it was established in 1881, the Comet Lodge cemetery site has been whittled away to less than half its original 5 acres. Records are sketchy but it's safe to say that some 500 pioneers were buried here, atop unknown numbers of native Duwamish people. New burials ended in the 1930s. Since then, homes and streets were built on top of many of the plots as the neighborhood around the cemetery grew.  "Upkeep and ownership of the cemetery bounced between the city, civic groups, relatives of Comet Lodge residents, and nearby neighbors. For years, much of the property was allowed to deteriorate int...
Read more