"Tracing Our Roots" Newsletter Archive (A monthly genealogy newsletter written by the late Brenda Kellow, dec'd, for the Plano Star Courier newspaper. We've included all the ones we could recover.)
The steps to writing a good report depend on preparation and skillful research, as well as recording the information correctly. The techniques offered in last week’s column begin to explain what you know before you begin the research at the onsite location. What you find at the research site must then be written, analyzed, itemized, and a future research plan adopted. The suggested topics for recording these are: 1) Analysis of Research; 2) Research Findings; 3) Additional Findings; 4) Future Research Suggestions; and, 5) Conclusion.
Whether or not your research trip was successful, it should be documented so that you don’t do it again. Also it should go into a report to show whether or not you found anything. This would go under Analysis of Research. Analyze what you found or did not find and tell how it relates to what you knew before the research trip.
Next, itemize every record you found and give the full name and citation, as well as identify the research site. This is done under Research Findings.
Often we find things or people we did not expect to find; or conversely, we do not find what we expected to find. We do not commit these to memory. We document these in our report for they are also important. These go into the topic called Additional Findings.
All of the above information is important, but will you remember where you need to resume researching in several months or years if you put it aside for a while? Not usually. Therefore, it is important to give Future Research Suggestions. With this recorded you need only check here to determine where to begin. Now there is only one step left, to write a conclusion.
The statement in the Conclusion should be succinct while summarizing what you found that relates to what you knew in the beginning, or it should show a conflict.
Without keeping records of information you found and have on hand compared to what documents you find in the future, you become “research” disoriented. A report informs where you were, what you found, gives an analysis, then gives and itemized list of documents found or not found, gives suggestions on where to begin research in the future, and ends with a succinct comparison of the before and after.
Update these reports each time by showing in the “Background” what you found in previous reports.
Now you have your research package all documented and filed on your hard drive. When cousin Rachel writes to ask for everything you have a your great-great grandfather you can send her a copy of your report off your computer. It only takes a couple of minutes to do this compared to hours of hunting photocopies and typing how you are related and how the copies relate to your typed information. It is my theory that most people just want the information and have no intention of following the source trail. If there is an exception, however, the sources to all documents are included in the report. Just print it, address the envelope and mail it or E-mail it and you are ready to get back to your research project. Time spent on cousin Rachel’s request, three minutes.
African American Research
“A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your African-American Ancestors, how to find and record your unique heritage” by Franklin Carter Smith and Emily Anne Croom was published just in time for February’s Black History Month. It covers research problems in three parts. Part One encompasses the post-Civil War era to present. Part Two covers comprehensive pre-Civil War research, the most difficult period to document. The final part has detailed case studies of three African-American families and explains how the research tactics helped them to trace their ancestry. The book, published by Betterway Books, sells for $21.99 and is available at local bookstores.
Brenda Kellow, dec'd, Certified Genealogist and Certified Genealogical Instructor, had a Bachelor’s Degree in history and taught genealogy courses at the local Community College and computer genealogy at the University.
