Research Logs and Timelines
Research Logs
As we do our research we find
a numerous amount of sources to use. A
good research log can be a tool to guide us through these sources. This useful tool provides a way to keep tract
of where we have been and what we have found.
Once we use the research log to guide us through our research, it will
also provide a trail to help others return to that same source information.
Most of us did not use the
research log when we began our research.
Now when we review our data we have no clue as to where we found the
information. Without documentation the
information is questionable.
The most important element of
a good research log is the most obvious.
It is simple; researchers should keep a research log. Your research log should be the first piece
of paper taken out of your bag when you start your research session and should
remain at the top of the pile for the duration of the research session.
A research log is helpful in
planning a trip. As we search for films
or books we want to use, these can be listed with complete call numbers or film
numbers on our research log. It also
prevents us from duplicating research.
When you arrive at your research location, you have your plan for
research ready. As you research, all
you need to do is list your date of search and results.
Don’t forget to keep a
research log for your online research at home.
When you are surfing from site to site it is easy to neglect our
research log.
The format you use for your
research log needs to fit you. The
church has a research log, which is adequate, but I also have designed my own
at times. If you keep your research log
on your computer, it is easy to add information to the different spaces. You can also copy and paste information from
a website into your research log.
In a class provided by a
professional researcher, which I attended, he recommended listing all the
sources available for a location from the Family History Library catalog
regardless if they were applicable. You
will know what the library has available.
Before you visit the library, you can evaluate all the sources and mark
those you will use. There will be some that you will not be using (such
as—wrong time period.) You may use them
later as your research progresses. In
order to create this list he used the copy and paste feature to make his
log. He said the initial setting up of
the research log was time consuming but it saved him time when he was at the
research facility.
Timelines
Sir William Bragg, back in
the eighteenth century, said: “The
important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover
new ways of thinking about the known facts.”
He was talking about science and scientific discoveries but his words
pertain to our genealogical searching, as well.
“If you’ve been doing
research for ten years or more, says Dr. Arlene Eakles, and you’re stuck, then
it’s time to go back and look again at those first records gathered and first
records used. You’ll recognize all that
you missed before, things that you really didn’t realize were significant.”
My favorite comes from Marsha
Hoffman Rising: “The difference between
an ordinary researcher and a good researcher is not the records they use, but
how they use the records.”
What do these quotes have to
do with timelines? Timelines are one of
the three main building blocks of good genealogical research. The first two are the pedigree charts and the
family group records. A timeline can
summarize what is know about an ancestor and can be used as a work sheet. Assembling a timeline for an ancestor is
going back over all the facts known about that ancestor and putting them in
chronological order. Compiling a
timeline causes one to look again at all the sources previously used and to
check again the paperwork and documentation that you’ve collected for an
ancestral family. It may cause one to
look at old information in a new way.
Start constructing a time
line for an ancestor.
Put these headings at the
top—age, date, place, event, sources
Then start sifting and
sorting though all the paperwork and facts and documentation they’ve collected
on that particular ancestor. Enter the
information. A timeline is never a
finished project. A timeline is a
research aid. You could then
incorporate historical events that may have impacted your ancestor’s life—such
as—wars.
Chose a timeline that is easy
to understand, to use, and to update.
Chose a timeline that works for you.
The following is an
example. I have listed some of the
events in David Myers’ life. I also
left some blank lines for new information I might find in my future research.
David Myers
|
Age |
Date |
Place |
Event |
Sources |
|
0 |
1803 |
North
Carolina |
Birth |
Tombstone
Inscription and Census of 1850 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
27 |
June 1831 |
Morgan
Co., Indiana |
Marriage
to Susannah Knoy |
Morgan Co.
Indiana Marriage Register |
|
28 |
1832 |
Morgan
Co., Indiana |
Birth of
Mary P. |
1850
Census |
|
31 |
1834 |
Morgan
Co., Indiana |
Birth of
Rowena |
1850
Census |
|
33 |
1836 |
Morgan
Co., Indiana |
Birth of
Melinda |
1850
Census |
|
36 |
1839 |
Morgan
Co., Indiana |
Birth of
William |
1850
Census |
|
38 |
1841 |
Morgan
Co., Indiana |
Birth of
Isaac |
1850
Census |
|
40 |
1843 |
Morgan
Co., Indiana |
Birth of
Sarah |
1850
Census |
|
43 |
1846 |
Morgan
Co., Indiana |
Birth of
Levi M. |
1850
Census |
|
47 |
1850 |
Morgan
Co., Indiana |
Census |
1850
Census |
|
48 |
1851 |
Morgan Co.
Indiana |
Birth of
Eva Cate |
1860
Census |
|
54 |
11 Jun
1857 |
Shelby
Co., Illinois |
Marriage
of Mary P. |
Illinois
State Marriage Index |
|
56 |
23 Jun
1859 |
Fayette
Co., Illinois |
Marriage
of Malinda |
Illinois
State Marriage Index |
|
57 |
1860 |
Fayette Co.,
Illinois |
Census |
1860
Census |
|
58 |
1861-1865 |
United States |
Civil War |
U.S. History |
|
60 |
27 Sep
1863 |
Browns
Ferry, Tennessee |
Death of
Levi |
Civil War
Military Records |
|
61 |
3 Nov 1864 |
Shelby
Co., Illinois |
Death of
Mary P. |
Shelby
Co., Illinois Cemetery Records |
|
64 |
23 Mar
1867 |
Shelby
Co., Illinois |
Marriage
of William |
Illinois
State Marriage Index |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
75 |
10 May
1879 |
Tower
Hills, Shelby Co., Illinois |
Death |
Shelby Co., Illinois Cemetery Records |