Writing a research report is a great way to get your information together and straight in your head. I find putting it in writing always helps me to be more clear. Even just putting information together into a blog post can show me a wrong turn that I might have made or can confirm that I was on the right track.
Even old notes in a text file can help. I’ve been reading an entire county in the 1860 census and just found out that I may be going overboard on trying to find a family in it. The file note says the big three indexes don’t include this family…. Hmmm.
Writing down what you think you know so far and being prepared to change your thinking if new evidence comes up is really important. I hadn't thought of writing a research report to myself. What I tend to do is write a sourced narrative about a person or event based on what I know so far and being clear about as yet unproven assumptions and speculation. I find that as I write the narrative, the gaps (both in information and sources for that information) become apparent. I can then research further to fill the gaps or leave until later as a record of what I need to do next when I refocus on that person or event.
I learned this approach from you during the book club. Rather than waiting until you think you have it perfect, write a report on your current thinking. At least you'll have something written down. Writing the reports also seems to help me see gaps in my research or questions that I should have asked myself when doing the research. This is especially apparent in old research, when I first started as a "baby genealogist". <grin>
Writing a research report is a great way to get your information together and straight in your head. I find putting it in writing always helps me to be more clear. Even just putting information together into a blog post can show me a wrong turn that I might have made or can confirm that I was on the right track.
Even old notes in a text file can help. I’ve been reading an entire county in the 1860 census and just found out that I may be going overboard on trying to find a family in it. The file note says the big three indexes don’t include this family…. Hmmm.
Writing down what you think you know so far and being prepared to change your thinking if new evidence comes up is really important. I hadn't thought of writing a research report to myself. What I tend to do is write a sourced narrative about a person or event based on what I know so far and being clear about as yet unproven assumptions and speculation. I find that as I write the narrative, the gaps (both in information and sources for that information) become apparent. I can then research further to fill the gaps or leave until later as a record of what I need to do next when I refocus on that person or event.
I learned this approach from you during the book club. Rather than waiting until you think you have it perfect, write a report on your current thinking. At least you'll have something written down. Writing the reports also seems to help me see gaps in my research or questions that I should have asked myself when doing the research. This is especially apparent in old research, when I first started as a "baby genealogist". <grin>