The Research Process

Introduction

Conducting research is part of the process of doing family history work. After gathering documents and information you already have about your family, you will analyze your gathered information and conduct to find new information about your ancestors.

The Research Process

Family historians and genealogists of all levels, from novice to professional, follow a genealogical research process to help them be more efficient and effective in their efforts. A genealogical research process is a set of basic steps that enable a researcher to focus, work quickly, and conduct more accurate research. When a client hires a professional genealogist, the client has a particular question they would like answered. This is called a research goal, objective, or problem. The client then presents the information that is already known. The genealogist analyzes the given information, identifies and analyzes other known information, and makes a plan to achieve the goal. After gathering and analyzing new information for the contracted amount of time, the genealogist contacts the client with a detailed written report of their research. While there are variations of the research process for professional or personal research, they all contain the same basic principles.

Throughout this degree, every lesson in each course will help you improve your ability to perform one or more steps in the research process. Now let's explore each of these steps in greater depth.

1. Define the Problem

The first step in the research process is to define the problem. A well-defined research problem focuses your research and helps you track your progress. Due to the easily accessible and time-saving genealogical resources available through the Internet, the average researcher has not maintained the motivation to define a problem. However, without a well-defined problem, you may waste time looking for additional records that are not needed to solve the problem you have been given.

To effectively define a research problem, remember to include specific facts and hypotheses about who you are researching, what you want to know, and where and when it happened. Every problem in genealogy essentially centers on establishing two types of information: relationships and events. State which type of information you will research to solve the problem. As you define the research problem, be specific and include pertinent details. For example, "Find the marriage" is not as effective as "Find the marriage of Paul Renz and Matha Kroll, who, based on their censuses were most likely married in Youngstown, Mahoning, Ohio, in about 1914."

No matter your level of expertise, you can write a well-defined research problem to focus your research. With experience, you will learn additional information that could further define the problem. For example, by learning when vital records for an area began to be recorded at a state level instead of a county level, you could add this detail to your research problem: "Find the marriage of Paul Renz and Matha Kroll, who, based on their censuses were most likely married in Youngstown, Mahoning, Ohio, in about 1914. This would have been recorded at the county level."

2. Find and Analyze Known Information

Finding and analyzing known information will save a great deal of time. However, you should never accept any previous research without first analyzing it and confirming its conclusions. There are many resources that you can use to find previous research, such as:

  • FamilySearch Family Tree or Genealogies
  • Ancestry.com Public Member Trees
  • MyHeritage
  • Other online trees, found through an Internet search
  • Biographies, local histories, or compiled research books - Digital or print copies may be found through an Internet search, in the FamilySearch catalog, Google Books, archive.org, and other societies, archives, or libraries.
  • Other online sources found through Internet searches - blogs, Wikipedia articles, etc.

Once you find potential known information, ask yourself the following questions as part of your analysis:

  • Is there enough information contained in the record to confirm that the individuals involved are those you are researching?
  • Does the information solve your research problem?
  • Does the information appear accurate, or are there unexpected locations or dates?
  • Is the information thoroughly sourced?
  • Does the existing material include high-quality images of original documents?

If the answer to any of the questions above is, "no," you may need to choose one of the following options: obtain original records to validate the information, use the information as hints that could narrow your search, or simply start from nothing. Ask yourself these questions each time you find known information. As you gain more experience, you will more quickly discover additional sources of known information and automatically analyze the information.

3. Develop a Plan

A plan transforms the research problem into specific steps you will take to conduct new research and solve the research problem. Developing a plan will orient your research and provide you with contingency plans that you can quickly use if your initial plan fails. Your plan should include the location(s) you will search as well as which types of records you would like to locate.

No matter your level of expertise, you can carefully think through your problem and develop a specific research plan. As you become more experienced, you will learn which types of records tend to solve which types of research problems. You will also learn which records are available in the area where you are conducting your research. Until you gain this knowledge, you can write a more generic research plan, such as the example written below.

Remember, your plan should include the specific information you are seeking, record types you believe will solve your problem (if known), and any details that could aid your research, such as names, dates, and locations. Notice in the example that most of these details would have been written as part of your well-defined research problem.

Example Research Plan:

I plan to obtain the marriage date of Louis Gershon and Jessie Greenwall by finding their marriage license, certificate, or return. The information may also be located on a Church record and I suspect that they were Jewish. They were likely married in South Africa, but could have been married in the eastern part of Germany or Poland. He was born in Wreschen, Posen, Germany about 1860 (in modern-day Poland) and she was born in Turek, Poland about 1865. To find information, I will:

  • Check FamilySearch, Ancestry, and other major online databases, beginning with a few global searches, and then drilling down into specific collections.
  • Conduct an Internet search for records
  • Check CyndisList for sites that may contain the needed information.
  • Check the FamilySearch catalog.
    • Search each jurisdictional level for information that may solve my problem.
    • Create a list of microfilm numbers and any other needed information that may help me locate the information on the microfilm.
    • Order the list in terms of what will most likely solve the problem, ensuring to include any preliminary steps, such as searching a microfilmed index first. I will skip any records that I know will not solve my problem. Otherwise, I will include it in the list.
  • Conduct an Internet search for religious or government archives that I could contact. Depending on time and cost, insert these archives into the list I created from the FamilySearch.org catalog. If I do not have easy access to the Family History Library, paying an agency the fee for a document may be cheaper than ordering multiple microfilms.

4. Gather Information

Once you have developed a plan, execute it to find the information you need. No Matter your level of expertise, you will have questions as you conduct your research. You can find help articles in order to locate and read the records you seek. Such help articles could include:

  • The Help or Learning Centers on FamilySearch, Ancestry, or other major websites
  • The FamilySearch Research Wiki, or the Ancestry.com wiki
  • Finding aids for libraries or archives, which help you navigate their collections. For example, the National Archives has many guides and finding aids

In this course and throughout the BYU-Idaho Family History Applied Associate's degree, you will develop many fundamental research skills and discover valuable genealogical resources. Some of these skills include using FamilySearch and its partner sites, locating historical records in a variety of databases, and reading difficult handwriting to help you decipher historical records. With continued practice, you will be able to perform these steps faster and with greater confidence.

5. Analyze Information

Once you find information, you must analyze it instead of immediately accepting it as fact. To analyze information you find, ask yourself questions like:

  • Is this an original document, or is it an index or transcription? For example, a birth record is more reliable than a birth index because indexing or transcribing could introduce (additional) errors.
  • Did the person who reported or recorded the information have firsthand knowledge of the event? For example, a birth date reported by a person's parent is more reliable than one reported by a person's spouse because the parent was present for the event while the spouse was not.
  • Does the information in the document directly state a fact or is it only inferred? For example, in determining where a person lived, a census record would be more reliable than a death record that lists their place of death. While you can infer that they died near their home, their residence can only be inferred from the death record, while the census states it directly.
  • Was the record created near the time of the event or much later? For example, in determining a birth date, a birth record would be more reliable than birth information listed on a death record because the birth record was created nearer to the time of the birth.
  • Does the document contain other noticeable errors? For example, if you know that a death record lists the wrong birth information and the names of their parents, the rest of the information is somewhat more likely to be wrong as well.
  • Would the person who gave the information have a stronger motive to lie or to be accurate? For example, many people could lie about their marriage date in order to cover up a child born out of wedlock, but someone who is applying for a pension would choose to be extremely accurate in their application to ensure they receive the pension.

Asking yourself these questions is vital to conducting accurate genealogical research. As you become more experienced, you will analyze evidence automatically.

6. Record Conclusions

After you analyze the evidence, you are ready to record the information. In recording information, remember the following principles:

  • A female's maiden name should be recorded
  • Dates should be in the order of day-month-year, and the year should be recorded as four digits. For example, 16 May 1864
  • Places should be recorded from smallest geographical area to largest, such as City, County, State, Country. For example, Rexburg, Madison, Idaho, United States
  • Jurisdictions on a city, county, state and country level should be recorded as they existed at the time of the event

At first, you may not always notice and record every piece of pertinent information included in each record you find, but with practice you will quickly improve your ability to notice the subtle details contained in a record.

Along with recording the information you find, you should also:

  • Cite your sources. This means you must state where you found your information. There are general rules you should follow when citing a source, and there are style guides you can refer to for assistance. At the minimum, your citation must include enough information for someone else to quickly find the source.
  • Track your research through well-organized notes or a research log. If your research plan is written in a document with space for additional notes, that would be an excellent location to record your results. Additionally, your research log should include some of the information you will need for your citations.

Always track your research through a basic research log and cite your sources with enough information to locate the document again. If you wish to use formal genealogical citations, most professional genealogists use Evidence Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills. The final decision of what style to use depends on your preference and the preferences of your client.

Next Steps

The conclusions you come to after your research will determine your next steps in the research process.

  • If your problem is solved and the information is recorded, you have successfully completed the research process. Your next step will be to either end the project or move on to a new problem.
  • If the problem is not solved, after you record your conclusions and the results of your research, there are two paths you could take:
    • If your conclusions lead to a modification of your problem, your next step will be to identify and analyze known information related to the new modified problem and continue the research process. For example, if you discovered that the individual was born in a different place or to different parents, this would alter your well-defined problem and require you to find known information related to the revised problem.
    • If you have exhausted your plan, your next step will be to develop a new plan and continue the research process. Perhaps you will need to check a record type you had not considered, or search for additional archives where information could be obtained.

Conclusion

You now know the entire research process. As you study this semester, think of how the lessons can help you perform specific steps of the research process. Remember, no matter your level of expertise, following this process will help you to conduct quicker and more accurate research.