RLP 104: Research Reports – Certification Preparation

Nicole (1s):
This is Research Like a Pro episode 104: Research Reports for Certification. Welcome to Research Like a Pro a Genealogy Podcast about taking your research to the next level, hosted by Nicole Dyer and Diana Elder accredited genealogy professional. Diana and Nicole are the mother-daughter team at FamilyLocket.com and the creators of the Amazon bestselling book, Research Like a Pro a Genealogists Guide. I’m Nicole co-host of the podcast join Diana and me as we discuss how to stay organized, make progress in our research and solve difficult cases. Let’s go.

Nicole (45s):
Hi everyone. And welcome to the show. I’m Nicole Dyer co-host of Research Like a Pro, and I’m here with accredited genealogist, Diana Elder. Hi Diana.

Diana (55s):
Hi, Nicole. Fun to be back on the podcast today, we just had a fun little vacation at Brian Head Utah, and it was fun to be in person with you and your family and see the grandkids catch up on everybody’s life.

Nicole (1m 11s):
Yes, it was a great little family reunion and it was very high elevation. We loved it. It was nice to be somewhere cooler than Arizona not be burning up in the hot weather. So we really enjoyed that. And then we came here to my in-laws. So I’m recording today from not my usual setup at home. So if I sound far away or crackly, I’m sorry about that.

Diana (1m 35s):
Well, we are just happy to be back together on the podcast and talking genealogy. It’s always fun to have a break, but it’s always fun to get back to it. And I’ve been working on a project this month that’s been pretty fun. I’m doing the second iteration of a project, and using a lot of city directories in conjunction with newspapers, and that’s been really fun. The span is about 1893 to 1937. Just a really interesting era. The ancestor that I’m researching was a traveling salesman. And it’s so interesting to read the newspaper accounts about this gentleman, how he’s going to New York to buy silk and wool and goods for the store.

Diana (2m 19s):
And then that he’s come back and they need to come shopping because there’s all of this great merchandise now. So fun to read all these little tiny details about the city and the people in it. So I guess it wasn’t that much different back then that they like to know what’s going on everybody’s lives. They just put it in the newspaper and we don’t get that as much now do we?

Nicole (2m 42s):
No, but you just reminded me of a very exciting document that I received and I’m so sad I forgot to show it to you while we were together. I’ll have to show it to you later. But as you know, I have been working on my father-in-law’s ancestry to find out who his patrilineal ancestor is beyond John Robert Dyer. And there was a courthouse fire in Hawkins county, Tennessee. So we’ve had a little bit of trouble, but after we interviewed Melissa, the archive lady, on the podcast I decided to do a little bit more research into a manuscript collections for that area. And I found out that the Tennessee state library and archives had an account book for a store in Rogersville, which is in Hawkins county and the time period that the account book covered was the time period that I really needed more information about.

Nicole (3m 36s):
It was about 1800 to 1850 or so. And that’s when I would have wanted to look for Dyer candidates who lived in that area because on his death information that says that he lived in that county, his whole life, whether or not that’s accurate, I’m not sure, but I wanted to get more info about Dyers who lived there. So I had Melissa go to the Tennessee state library and look for any Dyers in that store account book, and guess what? She had scanned several pages of that store account book, and there’s a new Dyer person in there that I’d never heard of.

Diana (4m 11s):
Oh my goodness. What’s his name?

Nicole (4m 14s):
Ignatius Dyer. Never heard of an Ignatius living there in Rogersville. So I was shocked and very excited because I now have a name and it’s a rare name. So I feel like it’s going to help me locate this man, unless he lived and died in Rogersville and there’s no other records of him anywhere else because of the courthouse fire, but I’m hoping there’s something else, you know, in another county about Ignatius Dyer that can help me identify him. And I’m just really excited to do a project on him.

Diana (4m 43s):
Well, that’s really fun to have something come up in a manuscript collection, which is just another verification that we have got to sometimes go beyond the general records that we always use and really branch out on these difficulties.

Nicole (4m 56s):
Yes. And it’s fascinating he appears in this account book several times buying silk and gunpowder and lead and all kinds of things. And some of these people, I recognize their names as well as associates of John Robert Dyer in later years. So I’m really excited to really dive into this account book and see what kind of evidence I can put together just from the one source of this book and then make a plan to go further with it.

Diana (5m 27s):
That’s awesome.

Nicole (5m 28s):
Yeah. I have about 28 images so far and she said, she’s not done. She has to go back and finish the scanning because I didn’t just request the surname Dyer. I also asked her to search for some of the associates of John Robert Dyer’s surnames and neighbors in the 1830 census, which is the first time I see John Robert Dyer. So I’m just excited to go ahead and use all of this information to build stronger profiles of these people and see how they might’ve interacted with each other and what the items they were purchasing could mean them and anything I can pull from this.

Diana (6m 1s):
Yeah, that is great.

Nicole (6m 3s):
Sorry to sidetrack the conversation there, but I’ve just was excited to tell you about that.

Diana (6m 8s):
No, I’m so curious to see what you will put together from all of those different details. So what are we talking about today?

Nicole (6m 16s):
Today we are talking about the BCG Certification Preparation that we have been discussing in past episodes. And today we’re talking about portfolio element number four, which is the research report prepared for another person. From the application guide we learned that this portfolio element requires that you submit one report prepared for another person that represents authorized research about a genealogical problem. The report must demonstrate in-depth and skillful use of a range of sources. It must include analysis of the problem, a detailed account of findings and recommendations for further work, if the problem is not resolved.

Diana (7m 0s):
So this is something that you would do for a client. And again, you know, with your certification portfolio, no one can have reviewed it. And that’s just what client work is. You know, we don’t usually have our peers review our client reports. We do it all ourselves, and then we give it to the client.

Nicole (7m 20s):
Yes, that’s a really good point. So I think that’s a really important part of this is that we are showing that we are capable of doing high quality work for clients and are skilled enough that we don’t need to have other people check up on our work. The next part of the application guide for this element, it says that we should not be submitting genealogies, biographical narratives, case studies, lineage society applications, or other commissioned projects for this part of your portfolio. So it’s not for any type of commission work. It should be a report that describes the research performed during a commissioned investigation, which I think most of the type of client work that is done is this type of work on a question where you have a person that needs to be identified or parents that are missing.

Nicole (8m 10s):
And you’re trying to work on that problem and give them an update on what you’ve found so far. But of course, other times we work on different types of commissioned work from clients. You’ve had some work commissioned by a client where you’ve written more of a biographical narrative, haven’t you?

Diana (8m 27s):
I have. I had a client that asked me to write up her research. You know she had performed this research over a period of years and wanted it written up in sort of a report style, but it really was more of a narrative discussing all the research and putting everything together and adding some information about the place and the time. So it was kind of a hybrid of reporting on the research, as well as a biographical narrative. We never know, the clients always have very specific things that they would like to have done. And I would say that this is mostly the type of work that I end up doing because a client hires us to tackle a brick wall problem, generally, something that they’ve just been working on and they’re stuck on, they want us to do something specific like discover Native American ancestry or find the parents of this brick wall ancestor.

Diana (9m 23s):
And so those are all Research Reports where we’re just reporting on the sources that we’ve searched and what we found. And often that includes some proof summaries or proof argument maybe, but sometimes it is simply a research report where we don’t come to a conclusion and it shows that there needs to be further research,

Nicole (9m 44s):
Right. That’s an interesting point there that sometimes we don’t resolve their problem and we need to make recommendations for what to do next. So we always try to include that in all of our Research Reports, because it is so important to think about what was found and what records it might lead to.

Diana (10m 4s):
Yeah. That is the neat thing. When you actually write up your research, you always have ideas about what to do next and very seldom, well never, do I come to the end of a research problem and not have a whole list of things that I would do next if I were commissioned to go forward, or the client themselves can do for the next part of the research.

Nicole (10m 27s):
Exactly. You know, at the end of one of my Research Reports, I put a future research suggestion for the client to look into himself If he was interested in that one of the sisters of his ancestor married a brother, I think of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America. So I had put in there a research suggestion to further research that man, to see if this claim was correct. I think it was something on Find a Grave. So just something interesting that he might want to follow up on. He said he wasn’t interested.

Diana (11m 3s):
Yeah. You never know about what the client will want to do next. That’s so funny. Oh yeah. And sometimes I just have to hold myself back because I just want to go do the next part of the research that’s so fascinating and I think there’s so much benefit to going forward. And sometimes the client just says, no, I’m done with this. I want you to do something different now, on this other line.

Nicole (11m 27s):
This particular client wanted to jump back about four generations and go find his immigrant ancestor who came to Virginia. So that’s sometimes what is wanted next. Let’s talk more about what this research report must include. So, like I mentioned in the title, it’s a report prepared for another person. So you must use a family other than your own or your spouse’s family. So you’re going to have to go find somebody else you could research for, and it doesn’t have to be paid. So you do have to talk to another person, find out something that they would like help on. So they’re authorizing you to work on that person in their family, but you can just do the work pro bono unpaid, or you can do some kind of research time exchange or something like that, but it just needs to be done for another person, not you or your own spouse’s family.

Diana (12m 20s):
I think that’s really valuable. It’s such a valuable skill. And I would really encourage everyone listening to do a project for somebody, not your own family. I think you’ll find that you learn so much widening your scope of research, research in a whole different areas, somebody different. It’s really fun. When I first did my first project for someone, it was my neighbor down the street. And I really didn’t know if it would be as fun to research for someone else as for myself. And when I discovered that, yes, it was, then I decided that’s what I wanted to do this for a profession because we love researching our own families. And we’d sometimes don’t think we’ll care about somebody else’s, but I found myself just as engaged with trying to solve the problems in his family tree as my own.

Diana (13m 7s):
So it’s a great thing. You don’t have to charge money just to say, well, let me help you with that problem and find a solution. It’s just a good experience. It’s really a fun thing to do.

Nicole (13m 18s):
How true. And it’s a really good way to find out if you would be interested in becoming a professional genealogist.

Diana (13m 25s):
Right.

Nicole (13m 25s):
So the other part of the research report is that it must be submitted to BCG exactly as it was when you sent it to the person who authorized the work. So after you finish the report and give it to your friend or your client, you’re not allowed to update it or change it before you submit it to BCG.

Diana (13m 45s):
Yeah. That’s interesting because you may be after sleeping on it for a week or two, think of something else you would have added to it or you’d like to change and you can’t do that.

Nicole (13m 56s):
Yes. I have been working on my portfolio and thinking about it for the last, you know, year and a half. And so I finished a research report for a client that I am planning to use in my portfolio. And so when I created the report, I had that in mind that I needed to get it up to standard and get it the way that I wanted it in order to be able to submit it to BCG. So I think that’s important if you’re working on your portfolio to review all of the standards and all of the rubrics for the research report before you finish your report and send it to the client because you’re going to want it to meet the rubric indicators.

Diana (14m 35s):
Okay. So I have a question about that. Let’s say you’re commissioned to do a 20 hour project and you’ve spent your full 20 hours on the project, but the report isn’t quite how you want it to be for your portfolio. Is it okay to go ahead and spend another 10 hours cleaning that up and fixing it up?

Nicole (14m 56s):
I would do that, for sure. I think it’s your own time, right, that you are spending on it, and you’re not charging the client for the extra work you’re doing to make it pretty for BCG. So yeah, I think that’s okay. I’m not sure exactly and I don’t speak for, to BCG. They definitely don’t ask you to detail all of the hours that you’ve spent. It actually doesn’t even say in the requirements that you have to set a time limit, but I can see here just says that it’s somebody else’s commissioning the work and it can be unpaid or for an agreed upon sum or hourly fee. So it doesn’t exactly say that you have to stick to a certain number of hours.

Diana (15m 37s):
I figured it probably didn’t. I was just wondering that because often on my client work, I’ll get to the 10 or 20 hours and then I am just a perfectionist and I’ll spend a couple extra hours making sure everything is just how I want it. And that of course is on my own time. And I don’t mind doing that because I do want to give really high quality work to the client. The interesting thing, just to do a little comparison with the accreditation process is the fourth-generation report that you submit for accreditation. You can take as much time as you want on that. And that just took me about a year because it was so intensive the research and putting it all together. But your final project for accreditation, that’s where you’re given a problem and you do have to do a complete project and create a report within, for me, it was three hours.

Diana (16m 25s):
They’ve now changed it to four hours. And then that’s what you turn in. And of course, you know, as Raters, we recognize that there was a specific time limit, but it does show that you can really put together something in that time limit. And that’s showing your expertise in your skill. Interesting to kind of compare.

Nicole (16m 44s):
I think that’s a good comparison point with the portfolio for BCT and with the accreditation testing process, because with the portfolio, there really aren’t time limits. There’s the one year that you are allowed after you submit your preliminary application, but you are able to extend that year. So there isn’t really the same testing process where they see what you can actually do in a certain amount of hours. But if you are talking with a client about the nature of the project you undertake and the limitations on your time, that letter is included with the report,

Diana (17m 18s):
I think that’s really good because we are under limitations. And especially now with the COVID pandemic going on, and there’s so many research repositories that we can’t access. Like we use to the Family History Library, for instance, and the National Archives is closed to outside researchers. You can still send in your request for the staff, but generally I have someone that I hired to go and do it. So there are some real limitations right now, and I have to make sure that I let the clients know that and put that right in the report.

Nicole (17m 53s):
Right, you know, this makes me think of standard number 74 about reports in genealogy standards. That standard includes 10 bullet points or characteristics of a standalone genealogical research report. And one of those is that you do list any restrictions on your research hours, repository, or source access expenses or other resources. And if you think about it, this is really important for the client to know, and for future researchers to know, because what if this report is passed on to another researcher, it’s important to know that.

Diana (18m 28s):
Absolutely. You make a good point about the future research and other researchers, because that is true. Sometimes I do get another researcher’s report. You know, someone had commissioned research maybe in the 1990s when there were not nearly as many things available to us, and that’s really helpful to read through their reports and just realize how much more we can do now. I think that having the research written up in a report form is so very valuable, which is why we talk about all the time. So I think it’s great that BCG has this part of the portfolio.

Nicole (19m 5s):
Yes. In my opinion, this is one of the most important elements of the portfolio because when you have the certification credential, it really is showing the public that you have the expertise and the ability to do this kind of research. And that you’re good enough to do it for the public.

Diana (19m 24s):
People do look at those letters behind your name. They may not know what those mean, you know, the eight-year CG, but they recognize that there’s something behind that and that you had to meet certain standards. And so these credentialing organizations really do have to have high standards to make sure the public knows that a person who has those letters behind their name is qualified.

Nicole (19m 44s):
For sure. There is a note here for those who are applying for certification, who are not working for paying clients, it says pro bono authorizations can be solicited from friends, neighbors, or correspondents. You might also undertake research for a library user, courthouse patron, or society member whose inquiry requires in-depth research. And I think that’s a good note to help us think of potential people that we could do research for, for our portfolio. And I was listening to a certified genealogist in the certification discussion group, alumni meetings that Jill Morelli has been putting on.

Nicole (20m 26s):
And she’s just been inviting on CGs who are willing to talk about their portfolio and their experiences with becoming certified. And one of them did that exact thing. She worked as a researcher for a library, and one of the people asked a question or had a research requests that needed in depth research. So after the library said, we can’t do that for you, you need to hire somebody she reached out to that person and offered her services in order to have this portfolio element of a research report done for another person.

Diana (20m 58s):
Oh, that’s great. I think you’ll find that there are lots of people out there that would love to have somebody look at their research. I know when I was trying to get my hours for Louisiana for accreditation, I reached out to one of your friends there in Pima County Genealogical Society cause you had told me she had Louisiana ancestors and I said, can I do a pro bono project for you? And she was thrilled to have me look at all her research and do some extra lookups for her and put together a project for her. So there are a lot of people that would love to have you work on their stuff.

Nicole (21m 30s):
Agreed. I’ve had a lot of friends and neighbors that whenever I tell them what I do, they’re like, oh, well I have this question about my ancestry and blah, blah, blah. And I always wish that I had time to work on it for them, and sometimes I have briefly, but you’re right, there’s plenty of people who are interested and would probably be willing to let you research their family. All right. So let’s finish up that discussion of the requirements from the application guide for this report. So it has to be for another person, you are supposed to meet documentation standards 1-8, research standards number 9-50 and writing standards, number 58-74 and focused really heavily on standard number 74, because it really talks about those unique report characteristics.

Nicole (22m 16s):
And then if your report includes DNA evidence, it must also meet standards 51 through 57. So potentially you could be using standards one through 74 for this Research Report.

Diana (22m 30s):
And that seems kind of overwhelming, doesn’t it sometimes? But I think if you just take them one by one and keep working towards meeting standards, it’ll become just second nature. And I know that you are really studying those.

Nicole (22m 44s):
Yes. I read from another applicant to BCG she wrote a blog post about her experience. I’ll see if I can find it and put it in the show notes, but she wrote that she recorded herself reading the standards so that she could listen to it over and over and really get them memorized. So I’ve been working on doing that too, because I really love listening to things on podcasts and in audio book format. And on that note, I just wanted to mention that Blaine Bettinger’s book, Family Tree Guide to Genetic Genealogy is now in audio book format. So I know all of our podcasts listeners are listening to this podcast because they like listening to stuff. So if you want to listen to his book, you can get it now on Audible.

Diana (23m 24s):
That’s great. Yeah. Listening to books is the best thing that I’ve discovered to get a lot more reading done. And I think that our brain just picks up on things differently when we’re listening than reading. So I think it’s really great to do both with some of these works that are maybe a little bit more difficult to get in our heads. Maybe if we read the standards and then we listen to them over and over again, that’ll really help us. So good job.

Nicole (23m 51s):
I really hope I can get them ingrained in my brain. So when you do your research report for another person, you need to make sure to include your conclusions about whether the research objective was reached. So regardless of whether or not you solve the problem, you should talk about that. The application guide says that BCG recognizes some problems cannot be solved and others require more extensive work that can be completed in the time authorized by the commissioning individual. I always love this idea. It’s just really helpful mentally, to be able to think about the fact that we don’t have to solve the problem. We just need to do our best within the time limit that we’re given.

Nicole (24m 32s):
And when we’re finished, we just need to put our conclusion of we’re not finished and we didn’t meet the objective because this requires more extensive work. We need to check these additional sources and whatnot. I think it’s a really helpful concept for professional genealogists to have that we don’t have to solve the problem within the time limit because sometimes it’s not possible.

Diana (24m 54s):
And that really takes the pressure off of us. I have to be really careful when I’m talking to my clients to state that, and that is in my contract, that this is for a certain amount of time and we may or may not solve the problem. I mean, we have no idea or going to find, we may uncover the record. That completely answers the research question, or we may not. And we can never promise that we will do something because we don’t know what if the answer is even out there.

Nicole (25m 24s):
Right. I think we can promise that we will check the most likely sources to answer the question because of our expertise. We know what to check first and what will most likely help them, but whether or not the person actually had a will or a probate or a land record, we don’t know until we check.

Diana (25m 41s):
Right. We know the records to check and we know how to interpret the evidence and look for new clues and new records that sometimes that initial checking takes almost all the time. And then that’s why we do the future research ideas.

Nicole (25m 58s):
Exactly. Well, with the research report, you are required to submit all of the photocopies and other document images that accompanied the original report exactly as you sent them to the client. That is different from other portfolio elements because as we discussed in past episodes, you’re not required to submit any images of documents with your kinship, determination project or with your case study. So you’re just, you only do that with the report, if that’s what you gave to your client. So if you did give them several documents, then you need to include that.

Diana (26m 29s):
That’s just like in a regular research project. Of course the client is going to want to see the actual images. And if I remember right, one of the standards, is that on those document images or photocopies, you also include the source citation that goes along with the documentation.

Nicole (26m 46s):
Yes, exactly. And that’s Genealogy Standard number 28: Images and Print outs. It says, data collection includes scanning and photographing text images and artifacts for later, use our study to show handwriting, engraving, and layout or other relevant aspects of a sources, appearance. Images and printouts include the entire source or the entire item of interest. Genealogists attach citations to images and printouts and they protect images and printouts from alteration. So good point that we need to attach those citations.

Diana (27m 17s):
That’s really important because sometimes I don’t remember where everything came from. We can’t just rely on our memory for all these different documents originated. Especially if we’ve gone to a repository they’re not online and not easily found again, we want to really make sure that we’ve noted where we got those.

Nicole (27m 36s):
Yes. What if those documents that we attach at the end of the report get separated from the report and maybe a cousin receives that document image and they don’t know where it came from because there’s no citation attached. So I think it’s important to think of those safeguards for separations.

Diana (27m 53s):
And that makes me remember that another safeguard for separation is to put the total number of pages in the footer. So you would put, you know, five of 25 pages for the report, so that if a page gets separated from the report, someone would know that this one page is not standalone. You know, there’s much other information backing it up. And so I used to just put the page number and then realize that need to have the total pages there as well. We always have to think of separation problem so.

Nicole (28m 25s):
Yes. Another thing that we need to submit with portfolio element number four is permission from the client that we can use their report in our portfolio. If your contract has like a section where the client can initial that, it’s okay for us to use this work for teaching and lecturing and peer review and so forth, that can work instead of a special letter from the client.

Diana (28m 48s):
That’s really nice. And I really love that clause, that our contract, because often I have so many fun conclusions or examples, things that I want to pull out of my client work and use in my presentations. And it’s just so nice to have the client’s permission right up front, that anything discovered can be used in our teaching because in genealogy, that’s how we teach is with examples. It’s one thing to say, do this, or search here, but when you have an story behind that or an example, and it just makes the presentation so much more interesting and it helps our brains to remember it. We remember stories so much better than facts.

Diana (29m 29s):
So of course we want to have permission for everything, but it’s just nice to think about when we’re doing work for others also.

Nicole (29m 35s):
Yes. And you know, I actually heard Tom Jones speak about this at SLIG, the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. He mentioned he does not like putting that blanket permission in his contract up front because he said, who knows what I’m going to find? And the client may not want to give permission for whatever as found. So I think that’s also important to think about, and I probably will get additional permission from the client for my report or the portfolio before I submit it.

Diana (30m 2s):
And that’s a good point. If I have something that I am a little concerned about, I will always make sure from the client, sometimes it’s just really small little examples or things, but I did a DNA project for an unknown grandparent. And before I use that for an entire presentation, I checked again with the client and said, is this okay? Because I’m using like the entire project for this presentation. And they were perfectly happy to have me use that. But in that case where I’m using a big portion of it, I just wanted to make sure. Yeah.

Nicole (30m 35s):
Yes. And when we are using DNA evidence, we need permission from the test taker and all of the matches to mention them in what we publish. So we just have to be aware and the genealogist code of ethics and the appendix of genealogies standards really goes over all of these issues. So make sure to check that out, to learn more about permission and privacy. All right, let’s briefly go over the rubrics for the report. So there are 12 indicators in the rubrics for the research report prepared for another person. The first indicator is [inaudible] and responsiveness. And if you meet this standard for this indicator, the research question or questions are clearly defined and effectively focused and the report either fulfills the recipient’s authorization and instructions, or explains why it was not possible.

Nicole (31m 24s):
This just goes back to what we teach about making sure that you have a focused research question or objective.

Diana (31m 31s):
Absolutely.

Nicole (31m 31s):
The second one is extent and efficiency of research. To meet standards for this, it says research covered sources, potentially relevant to the problem and extended to those that might aluminate or challenge other findings in the time allowed. And it proceeded in a logical sequence and efficient steps were proposed for any continuing investigation.

Diana (31m 54s):
I think that these rubrics are really good points to think about and just performing client research. I’m loving looking at these.

Nicole (32m 2s):
Yeah. I really liked the point that we need to go in a logical sequence. I think a lot of times we think about all the possible sources we could look at and maybe don’t put them in the right order of what would be the most logical. So it’s good to really think about how best to use the client’s time. All right. Number three says adequacy of source citations. It says sources are cited fully and consistently following recommended standards. Lapses of any kind are few in number and generally minor in consequence. So just like the other work samples, we need to have consistent source citations indicator, number four, adequacy of starting point information, a clear summary of earlier research or previously known information informs the recipient of the investigation, starting point.

Nicole (32m 51s):
This is an important one to be sure to include.

Diana (32m 54s):
And I think that’s really helpful for us if we’re reviewing past reports, just to remember what was known at the beginning of the project, because that can slip our minds. Sometimes we think that we’ve done more than we had at the beginning, and it’s really good for the client to remember to, oh, this is all that they knew at the beginning. And then they can see all that was discovered. That might be something that you don’t really think of to put in your research report, but it’s really

Nicole (33m 22s):
Oh, for sure. All right. Indicator number five is comprehensiveness and accuracy of reported findings to meet the standards. Positive and negative findings are reported accurately and in sufficient detail to her to avoid repetition of the same searches later and contents of records and comments about them are clearly distinguished. So how do you do that in your reports in order to make sure you show that there is a differentiation between document what it says and your comments about them?

Diana (33m 52s):
You know, I do narrative form reports. And so I just clearly stated it. I will say something like this is what the record showed and all bullet point, all the findings. And then I’ll do a paragraph after that, discussing it, putting in the analysis of what that means because often our clients are not genealogists and they don’t understand the significance of this one little sentence that to us stands out as being so important. And so I really clearly state that. I don’t leave anything to chance in my reports. I spell it out.

Nicole (34m 27s):
That’s good that you bullet point it that’s important for them to see the quotes and the extracts from the record are different from the evidence that we’re drawing from it.

Diana (34m 35s):
Right. And sometimes I will put things in the appendix also, you know, like if I’ve done a big run of city directories, then I will just do an index with the complete entries for each of the city directory years. Sometimes you’ll have like 20 years worth and I don’t want to necessarily put those in the body of the report. So I’ll reference a table in the appendix, so the client can go then and read it and full exactly what the directories were saying. And then I talk about it in their report and draw conclusions from it. They are so there’s different ways we can handle, you know, all these different situations with our reporting, our findings.

Nicole (35m 10s):
I like that. Let’s do number six: quality of evidence. It says evidence is drawn from reliable sources and information and the use of any weak evidence is logically defended. And then on the flip side, if you don’t meet the standards of this indicator, it says much evidence is drawn from unreliable sources and information without any justification. So sometimes you might see in an article or a case study that they’re using like an authored source or maybe an abstract. And they will say why maybe the original was destroyed. So they need to use this abstract instead, because nothing else exists anymore.

Nicole (35m 50s):
But if you just use that source and don’t say why you’re not getting the original, then you’re kind of relying on unreliable sources without justification.

Diana (35m 60s):
Right and I have an example of that from my accreditation report. I had two little boys who died in between census years. And so they’re not listed on any of the censuses. And I had conflicting information. I had a letter from a woman who read the gravestones in the 1960s. And then I had the Find a Grave reporting of that, which wasn’t done until maybe 2005. And it had a little bit different dates and a little bit different spelling of the names. And so I correlated that by saying, well, the reading of the headstones in the 1960s would be much better than 50 years later because in the 1960s, the person who read the headstones clearly stated that they were already crumbling and already getting hard to read.

Diana (36m 50s):
So that was not me reading the headstone, it was a letter of someone that did, but that was the best I could do. And I felt like that evidence was better than if I could just go personally look at it right now, but now it would be 60 years later.

Nicole (37m 6s):
Great.

Diana (37m 6s):
So many things to take in account when we are analyzing this evidence.

Nicole (37m 9s):
That’s a good example. All right, indicator number seven is correlation and assembly of evidence. And the rubric says that meeting standards for this means the most significant connections and contradictions and evidence are presented. And then if it doesn’t meet standards, it says many points of agreement or disagreement in evidence from multiple sources are not acknowledged, or the conclusion is based on one source. So no correlation of evidence is involved. So this correlation basically means that we compare and contrast the evidence from the sources and find points of agreement and disagreement to see if it all really points to a conclusion that’s been quarterly.

Diana (37m 53s):
And that’s what we do as professional genealogists. That’s why we often can solve problems that our clients didn’t because we understand how to correlate and assemble the evidence, especially if it’s indirect evidence.

Nicole (38m 4s):
Exactly. And we have to resolve any conflicts, like you mentioned before, which is indicator number eight, resolution of conflicting evidence. And the rubric says to meet standards here that conflict, resolutions must be logical and any additional research to address unresolved conflicts is proposed. So in the report, we don’t have to finish all this resolution of the conflicts we just need to mention it. And then at least to make a plan going forward to resolve the conflicts by doing additional research.

Diana (38m 33s):
Yeah. I think that we always have to acknowledge the problems that we see in the research.

Nicole (38m 38s):
Right. That’s our job to notice those conflicts and to be sure that we are not coming to an erroneous conclusion because we’re ignoring the conflicts. I mean, how many times have we looked at older research that has been published in books long ago where certain things were ignored. I’ve seen researchers who will attempt to explain it, but it’s not a logical explanation. And it’s kind of clear that they’re really focusing on proving their hypothesis instead of being open to the fact that it could be disproved.

Diana (39m 7s):
Yes, I have seen the exact same thing. We have to be very analytical. And I really like the statement that we are trying to disprove our hypothesis as much as to prove our hypothesis. I think that makes us look at things a little bit differently rather than trying to bring everything together to what we want it to be. If we’re trying to disprove that helps us maybe use more critical thinking.

Nicole (39m 31s):
I like that. Lance and I, my husband and I, were just listening to a podcast called the Art of Manliness. So it’s his podcast obviously. And he was listening to an interview with an author who was formerly a rocket scientist and a lawyer. His name is Ozan Varol. And I’m not sure if I’m saying that right, but his book is, Think Like a Rocket Scientist. Basically he said that exact same thing about trying to disprove your hypothesis because that’s what they teach in science is to come up with multiple hypotheses for a solution or conclusion, and then try to disprove each one until you’re left with one that can’t be disproved.

Diana (40m 12s):
That’s exactly right. I do that a lot when I am trying to research an unknown father, I will create a list of all the men in the county with the last name and then just go through and try to disprove all of them by finding their will and probate and various things. And that’s a great way to try to narrow the field of candidates.

Nicole (40m 34s):
Let’s go to indicator number nine: soundness of conclusions. All final and intermediate conclusions are consistent with reliable and sufficient evidence. And then if you partially meet standards on this, it says a final or intermediate conclusion is partially inconsistent with relevant evidence or a conclusion rests on only partially reliable or only partially sufficient evidence. So we just need to make sure that our conclusions are sound and if we’re not ready to make a conclusion in a report then just talk about what we need to do next. We don’t need to make a conclusion until we have enough evidence

Diana (41m 13s):
And this is also when we can use qualifiers. We can say probably this is the parent, but more research needs to be conducted, or we can say it’s possible. You know, we don’t have to say this is proven until it is proven.

Nicole (41m 29s):
Yes. I remember how excited I was when you talked to me about qualifiers, because think I was really hesitant at first to make any intermediate conclusions, because you don’t want to lead the client astray because sometimes they might take that intermediate conclusion and run with it.

Diana (41m 45s):
Right, right.

Nicole (41m 45s):
So it’s really nice to be able to say it’s possible, but here’s what we would need to do to find out if it’s proven

Diana (41m 52s):
Exactly.

Nicole (41m 53s):
Or not able to be disproven.

Diana (41m 56s):
Yeah.

Nicole (41m 57s):
All right. Number 10 is clarity of report to meet standards. The rubric says the reports format and sequence are easy to follow and the writing throughout is clear and largely free from grammar, spelling, punctuation, and typographical errors. So how do you edit your reports on your own? I know sometimes you have a friend edit them, but what do you do when you don’t have that?

Diana (42m 19s):
A lot of times I will print out the report and look at it on paper because then those things kind of jump out a little bit more and I can use my red pen. So easy with our computers to put the wrong dates. Like sometimes I will type 1969 instead of 1869, you know, a hundred year difference. That’s a little bit of a problem. Or sometimes I will have the names spelled wrong. You know, these things just creep into our research. So printing it out is one thing I do. And I also use the spell check on Microsoft Word. I use Microsoft Word to do my reports and that can catch some things. But you know, if you inadvertently type the wrong usage of a word and it’s spelled correctly, but not used correctly, that’s the problem.

Diana (43m 4s):
And when I’ve finished up and I’m doing my document numbering and my research log and all those little things at the end, that really helps me to go through the report one more time and make sure that everything is in order, there’s so many little details. So if you’re doing client research, you know, I would be curious to know how much time you spend for editing, but I always leave myself at least a couple hours to pour through it because I don’t want to give the client something that’s got a big problem. And I have in the past, turned in something and the client will email back and say, this looks great, but I’m so confused about this date. Then I will go correct it and give it back to them.

Diana (43m 46s):
You know, human error does creep in, but at least with your portfolio, you have plenty of time to go through it and make sure it’s all as correct as possible.

Nicole (43m 54s):
Yeah. I think it would be hard for a client to follow a report if it’s disorganized or if it has some errors like that with document numbers or just grammar and punctuation. So it is important because they are not usually genealogists. And so it’s already going to be challenging for them. So making it as organized and free from error as possible is important.

Diana (44m 16s):
Another really good strategy is just to have someone read it through, a non genealogists in your household, or a friend, or a neighbor. And you obviously can’t do this for BCG, but you could practice this with just regular Research Reports because that will help you to learn how to be more clear.

Nicole (44m 33s):
That’s such a good idea. And I really like that you said before submitting every port for the portfolio, it’s a good idea to practice. And that’s one of the things that was highlighted in the certification discussion group that I was a part of that you should not turn in the first time you’ve ever written a report or the first time you’ve ever done a proof argument. You should practice those first and then submit one of your later, more experienced versions.

Diana (44m 58s):
Exactly.

Nicole (44m 58s):
All right, let’s do the last two indicators real quick. Number 11 is document images and separation safeguards. So like we talked about in standard 28, all document images exactly reproduce the entire item of interest and each one bears a complete source citation and is cross-referenced in the report and safeguards to protect other report parts from separation or loss. So we talked about that already. And then number 12 is respect for privacy. The report includes written permission from all of the following individuals, the client and living DNA test takers referenced in the report. We’ve talked about that as well. So now we can go on to the judging of the portfolio.

Nicole (45m 40s):
So in our last episode on certification, we were talking about the judging for accreditation. And you asked me if I knew how the judges were selected for certification and I didn’t know. And I got an email from Angela Mickey, who is a Trustee for the Board for Certification of Genealogists, and she was listening and helped me out by answering the question. So I’m so grateful for her. So I’m going to share some of that with you. So on the Board for Certifications website on their evaluation process page, it says that at least three judges evaluate each application for initial certification using the rubrics to assess whether the submitted materials meet genealogical standards.

Nicole (46m 27s):
All judges are certified by BCG and have well earned reputations in the field. They are chosen from a rotating pool and as a group bring a broad range of genealogical expertise to evaluations. All are familiar with genealogical standards and the requirements for certification. They serve anonymously and each judge works independently of the others. And Angela added that the judges are selected for their expertise in an area representative in the portfolio. So that was kind of the question that you had last time, because in accreditation, I believe you said that the judges are selected based on the area that a person is accrediting in.

Diana (47m 9s):
Right. Because we recognize that if a person’s accrediting in Mexico, I would not be really qualified to judge their research because that is not where I typically do a lot of research. So I think that makes sense that BCG would also do the same. Thanks Angela, for clarifying that for us.

Nicole (47m 28s):
It’s so helpful to get all the information about how Certification works. I’ve been really grateful for the certification discussion group. I’m really thankful for Jill Morelli for her work, because it’s been really helpful to demystify the process of submitting an application to BCG. Back when I first decided to start working towards certification, it felt very far away. And like, I didn’t really know the inside information, I guess, but since attending institutes and doing the certification discussion group and really diving into understanding the standards, I’m feeling so much more confident and excited about somebody in my portfolio. I just decided that if I don’t make it the first time, I’ll just resubmit another time.

Nicole (48m 11s):
Yeah, that’s hard because you have to create all new work samples, but it’s worth it, I think.

Diana (48m 17s):
If you don’t succeed, don’t you get really good feedback? Specifically why? So then that can be a building block to do better the next time.

Nicole (48m 27s):
That’s exactly right. And one of the ladies in our certification discussion group said that she did that on purpose. She just submitted her work samples, knowing that she wasn’t ready, but hoping to be able to get some really good feedback to build on. I don’t know that I would recommend that, because I think sometimes BCG will just return the portfolio to you if it’s not ready to be judged. But I just thought that was an interesting way to go about learning and growing and building on your experience.

Diana (48m 52s):
That is interesting from the perspective of someone rating a portfolio, or in my case, an accreditation 4 generation project. You know, this is a volunteer effort, we’re not paid for doing this, at least on the ICAPGEN side. And so if I am rating a 4 generation report that really was submitted in haste in order to get feedback, I don’t really appreciate that because I spent a year and a half getting mine really perfected. And if I’m taking, you know, two hours out of my day to give feedback to someone that really wasn’t prepared, I just don’t think that’s quite right. That’s just my personal opinion. I really appreciate it when I’m reviewing a project that has taken someone a lot of time and they’ve done a very good job.

Diana (49m 38s):
To me, that’s just more respectful of a submitter to really put their best foot forward in a project. That’s my personal opinion on that.

Nicole (49m 48s):
I htink there’s better ways to get peer feedback and one of them is to join a study group or the certification discussion group approach in which we are both involved with, and another shout out to Angela Magee who started ProGen study groups. And you can practice doing all the portfolio elements and getting feedback on them in ProGen. That’s one of the things that I’m doing right now, and I’m learning so much from the other people in my group. So I really recommend that study group.

Diana (50m 15s):
Yeah, I agree. And I’m a mentor for three ProGen study groups right now. And coincidentally their assignment for this month was all to do Research Reports. So I’m looking forward to looking through those and giving some feedback on some of those as well. So I would highly recommend ProGen. And if you are thinking of doing accreditation, there’s the ICAPGEN Study group with the same idea that you submit some writing and you get feedback from your peers. That really helped me as well. There’s some really great ways to get feedback. You don’t just have to sit in your little bubble and do this work and turn it in. Reach out and have others help you to improve.

Nicole (50m 54s):
And of course, we’d always love to have any new participants in our own study group Research Like a Pro, which we do in the spring and Research Like a Pro with DNA, which we do in the fall. We are actually opening up registration for Research Like a Pro with DNA in August. So be sure to go and check out the study group information and prerequisites so that you can see if you would like to join us.

Diana (51m 18s):
Right. And we have the e-course available all year long or at any time. And you can get feedback in our Facebook group. We have a lot of very active members there that will look at your research and give you honest opinions about your work. So I think it’s wonderful that we have this great online community of genealogists now that we can all reach out and help one another to become better in all we’re doing. I know with every single project I learn and I get better and that’s really what we want. We just want to continue improving with every single project that we do.

Nicole (51m 51s):
Wow. This was a long episode today, Diana.

Diana (51m 55s):
Yeah. We had a lot to talk about. You would think we hadn’t just seen each other and been talking all weekend, but it wasn’t about genealogy.

Nicole (52m 2s):
We did a good job of separating our work from our play, didn’t we?

Diana (52m 6s):
Yes, we did.

Nicole (52m 7s):
Well, thanks everyone for listening today. And we hope that you are able to go forward with some more ideas for creating good Research Reports and preparing for your portfolio for certification, if that’s something that you’re working on.

Diana (52m 19s):
All right, well, everyone have a great week and we’ll talk to you next time.

Nicole (52m 23s):
Alrighty, bye-bye

Diana (52m 24s):
Bye-bye

Nicole (52m 26s):
Thank you for listening. We hope that something you heard today will help you make progress in your research. If you want to learn more, purchase our book Research Like a Pro a Genealogist Guide on Amazon.com and other booksellers. You can also register for our Research Like a Pro online course or join our next Study Group. Learn more at FamilyLocket.com. To share your progress and ask questions join our private Facebook group by sending us your book receipt or joining our eCourse or Study Group. If you like what you heard and would like to support this podcast, please subscribe, rate, and review. We hope you’ll start now to Research Like a Pro.