This is part 4 of a 5-part series on improving your search skills.
Use a research plan to guide your research. Did you just roll your eyes? Ok, well, listen. You might not have a research plan written out as such, but you do have an objective. Right? You are looking for something, somewhere.
Ask yourself the following questions:
What am I trying to learn? Frame your question with specific details and parameters.
What do I already know? Where have I already looked?
What kinds of records (and in what locations) will help me learn this thing? Think through what kinds of records will be most likely to help you find the information you are looking for. Try to zero in on primary sources, or records created by participants or observers of the events in question.
Do those records exist for that time in that place? How do I access them? Are they all digitized?
Let's look at an example.
Who was the father of Carl R. Blackwelder, Susan Blackwelder’s son, born 23 Feb 1886 in Wake County, NC, died 04 Jan 1952 in Vance County, NC?
Carl had 4 obits, none of which mention his parents, so those are out. He was born before birth certificates were produced in North Carolina, so no luck there, either. Census records list only Susan, Carl and Carl's siblings.
When we brainstorm where else to look, we come up with: Susan’s probate documents, bastardy bonds, Susan’s other children’s marriage licenses and death certificates.
These records exist, though bastardy bonds have not been indexed.
Susan’s probate documents: FamilySearch, local library
Bastardy Bonds: FamilySearch Catalog
Marriage Licenses & Death Certificates: Ancestry/FamilySearch, possibly at the local library, or at Wake County library
Now prioritize! Rank your searches by:
Ease of access, and
Relevance
You can use a High/Medium/Low scale for this, scales of 1-3, 1-5, or 1-10. You can also eyeball it, but the more searches and locations you have, the more valuable a numerical scale will be.
| Record | Location | Relevance (1 Low - 5 High) | Ease of Access (1 Diff - 5 Easy) | Score |
1 | Susan’s Probate Documents | FamilySearch or Ancestry | 3 | 5 | 15 |
2 | " " | Local library | 3 | 3 | 9 |
3 | Bastardy Bonds | FamilySearch Catalog | 3 | 3 | 9 |
4 | Marriage License/Death Certificates | FamilySearch or Ancestry | 5 | 15 | |
5 | | Local Library | 4 | 3 | 12 |
6 | | Wake Co Library | 4 | 2 | 8 |
Start with your highest scoring item and begin your search. Digitized records such as marriage certificates, death certificates, and probate documents are easy to access and highly relevant to the information you seek. If you can find the information you’re looking for there, you will have made the most efficient use of your time, and you can cross the other items off your list.
Now let’s say you can’t find any bastardy bonds for Susan, do you simply move on to the next highest score? Well, you can, but what if you took one minute to add a column to the table above to record the results of your research?
Record | Location | Relevance (1 Low - 5 High) | Ease of Access (1 Diff - 5 Easy) | Score | Results |
Bastardy Bonds | NC Digital Archive | 3 | 3 | 15 | Searched NC Digital Archive 5 Feb 2022 and found 0 results for bastardy bonds for Susan Blackwelder. |
Boom. You now have a research log. You know and have recorded for all of perpetuity that you’ve looked somewhere and didn’t find anything. Future you will thank you for always leaving a note.
Sometimes in research, when all else fails, it's best to back to the basics. Make sure to check out our last post in this series: "GTMF."
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