Using Older Resources
18. July 2010 — Mary (Views: 63)One of the typical errors that we make when we first start researching our roots is to not properly document the information that we find. It’s probably safe to say that we’re all guilty of this to a certain extent. Perhaps a more problematic error, however, is that of not looking far enough when conducting searches and settling for the first bits of data that we find and not going any further. Simply put, the more collaborating data we can gather to support an idea, the more faith we can put in our ideas and the more reliable and valuable our research becomes.
If you think of your research in terms of a scientific approach, it may become easier to visualize a good approach for conducting the research needed. Start with the idea that you are trying to prove and consider the steps necessary to verify the data. When it comes to proving an idea to be true, keep in mind that using someone’s online genealogy data is not likely to be considered valid proof for any but the most casual researcher. Think about the types of records that might exist for the time period involved and see how many exist that support your idea. Records that were produced closer to the time period in which you are interested will usually prove more valuable than more modern resources As a case in point, in the most recent article in the Spotlight, several different types of older resources are used to pinpoint the modern location of an old cemetery.
