Writing a report is a crucial step in our research. As we write, we synthesize the many details we’ve explored and put them together in an organized fashion. This allows us to bring a research phase to a close and provides the next steps for a future research phase. The search for Cynthia’s father continues, but in this phase, I successfully eliminated some candidates and found new opportunities to research. I’ve included the report at...
After making a research plan, following that plan is exciting. What new information or insights will we discover in the records? Could we find the answer to our long-standing brick wall? I’ve learned through experience that methodically logging my research as I follow my plan ensures that I don’t miss important clues. Creating the source citation is the first thing I do as I fill out my research log for a couple of reasons. First,...
An important step in our research is to make a plan. Rather than haphazardly clicking on record sets in various websites, we can think through our research objective and what we know about the family and locality, then plan searches in specific record sets. For this part of the Research Like a Pro process, we have several steps that help solidify what we know and prioritize the research. Here is the complete series: Revisiting the...
In my ongoing research to discover the father of Cynthia (Dillard) Royston, I’m exploring a new Dillard group who appeared in Cass County, Georgia, by 1840. In Part 1, I outlined the four previous research projects, including their objectives and conclusions. In this blog post, I’ll share the next step in the Research Like a Pro process: creating a timeline and analyzing the sources and information they hold, along with any evidence they provide. Here...
Last week, we were fortunate to host Cathy Duncan for an enlightening webinar on her genealogical research combining Texas migration patterns and DNA analysis. Cathy, a member of our Research Like a Pro study group, shared her journey to connect Lucinda Wright Rinker to her father using a methodical approach that integrates traditional and genetic genealogy methods. This blog post summarizes the key insights from her presentation. This blog post was written by Claude Sonnet...
I’m excited to choose my research objective for the upcoming 2025 14-Day Research Like a Pro Challenge! It starts on January 21. As I look through my research questions and think about which one to tackle, I love seeing what I have learned from past challenges. I also asked in our Facebook group to hear what others’ learned. The structured daily approach has helped so many of us make breakthroughs in our family history research....
Online Repository Assistant (https://www.ora-extension.com), also known as ORA, is a browser extension and Windows application created by John Cardinal. It works with many common online “repositories” like FamilySearch, Ancestry, FindaGrave, FindMyPast, Fold3, and more, to extract data from records and make it easier to paste text into your genealogy software or research report. I wrote a little about it in my post, Automated Source Citation Builders. ORA allows you to create your own text templates...
If you are using Airtable for tracking DNA matches and logging documentary research, I’m excited to share an update to the RLP with DNA base template available in Airtable Universe. Each year I make updates based on my own experience and suggestions from others. I usually do this before our Research Like a Pro with DNA study group begins. The group is in full swing right now, and we are using the new base I...
Have you ever discovered an important clue while reviewing the sources you already have for a research subject? It’s somewhat common for those following the research like a pro process to discover a vital piece of information during the timeline creation and analysis. This is exactly what happened to me as I reviewed the sources I had on Sally (Keaton) Reeves and her family. Timeline Creation The third part of the 14-day Research Like a...
Uniquely identifying a person who is only mentioned in three records can be challenging. The creation of a research objective requires that you identify the person uniquely in time and place. How then, do you define the research project? I encountered this challenge when beginning a project to study Sally Keaton. The only records I have for her include a court order printed in a newspaper and two documents in William Keaton’s estate packet. The...
