Usually when I talk about organization, I am referring to organizing the data you’ve found. But it may be even more important to organize your research plans. Over the years, especially in the beginning, I wasted a lot of time researching sources I had already searched, or looking in the wrong town, at the wrong family, wrong year, etc.
The first step in preventing these problems is to ask yourself what you want to find. For example, maybe you want to know “Who are your great-grandmother, Kittie’s, parents?” The first step is to thoroughly go over the information you already have. This may very well be the longest step in the process. Start with the family group and look at Kittie and her husband Frank, and their children. Do you have all of their vital records (birth, marriage and death records)? What other official documents do you have (wills, military records, etc.)? Do you have anything else: family stories, newspaper articles?
Next check what you have on her siblings. Sibling information is often the most likely to reward us with a solution. Just because the parents’ names weren’t recorded on Kittie’s marriage certificate doesn’t mean you won’t find them on her brother’s wedding records.
Now that you know what you have, it will be easier to define the next step. What records are you missing and where can you potentially find them? In the 1800s and earlier, it was most common for a spouse to be a near neighbor. Your questions might be, “Who were Frank’s neighbors in the years that he was a child and teen?” “Did they have a daughter of the right age and correct first name?” “Which neighbors can I eliminate?” A check of the census or land and tax records, possibly even probate records, could provide some of this information.
List the specific resources you want to check and whether they are going to be available at the places you plan to research. Library catalogues are very helpful in determining what they have. Do you need to order microfilm from the LDS church or from the state archives on Interlibrary Loan? Do you need to plan a specific time of day to access material from special collections? What kinds of copying is permissible; “Can you only use pencil and paper?” “Will they make photocopies?” “Can you use your personal computer/scanner?” Be sure to list microfilm or book call numbers to save on-site time.
Now suppose that you have completed this research and not found the information for which you were looking. Your next step should be a written summary that states the problem you were trying to solve, the research steps you undertook, and suggestions for the next step. I keep this where I would have placed the information if I had found it. That way, next time I look at the problem, I will know if it’s worth pursuing again, and if so, I will avoid duplicating past efforts.
Having a list of the resources I used sometimes gets me thinking of possible other options, which is always good news.
Editor’s note: This regular column is sponsored by the Aroostook County Genealogical Society. The group meets the fourth Monday of the month except in July and December at the Cary Medical Center’s Chan Education Center, 163 Van Buren Road, Caribou, at 6:30 p.m. Guests and prospective members are always welcome. FMI contact Edwin “J” Bullard at 492-5501. Columnist Nina Brawn of Dover-Foxcroft, who has been doing genealogy for over 30 years, is a freelance genealogy researcher, speaker and teacher. Reader e-mails are welcome at ninabrawn@gmail.com.
