Researching Your Genealogy: Evaluating, Clarifying and Redirecting Findings

All serious genealogists will come to a point in their research when they feel lost. This may be at a point after they have done so much research that the long list of notes and questions they have compiled becomes deep enough to wade through. Or it may be after a great amount of research yields few results. Whatever the reason, at some point in a genealogical research project, the researcher needs to sit back and look with a critical eye on all that has been done and all that needs to be done.

The first step to evaluate your research is to be organized. While this article will not focus on organization, check out this article or research other organizing methods that work for you. Once you're organized, you'll be able to effectively evaluate your research. Following are three techniques to help you evaluate, clarify, and redirect your genealogical research.

Write a summary for your ancestor. A detailed research summary for the ancestor you're researching can really help you see how much you have learned. Write the summary in order of your ancestor's life events, and for each event, document the source(s) where you found that information (use footnotes or parenthetical citations to detail the source). As you come to parts of your ancestor's life that still need some verifying, write questions or reminders to yourself in bold print. Here's a short example:

"Clarence Jones was born on 12 May 1876 in Putnam County, Ohio (family bible of Clarence Jones, 1896) to James and Mary Jones (death certificate of Clarence Jones, Ohio Department of Health, 1950). In 1900, he married Julie Spears (marriage certificate of Clarence Jones and Julie Spears, Putnam County Courthouse, 1900). In 1910, Bobby and Julie were living in Scioto County, Ohio, with three children (1900 US Census)."

The summary will give you a clear view of what you know about your ancestor's life and what gaps are left to be filled. It will also show you each document you have gathered for your ancestor. It will also be very easy to turn the summary into a description for a family history book if you choose to compile one.