===================================================================== GEORGE G. MORGAN: "ALONG THOSE LINES . . ." "Asking the Right Question" ===================================================================== Family history research is a lot like journalism. In involves asking a series of questions, evaluating the answers, placing them into context, formulating hypotheses, and formulating new questions to continue the research. Librarians can tell you that many of their customers, or patrons, arrive at the reference desk each day with questions that are not really the questions they want answered. They conduct what they call "the reference interview" in order to clarify what it is the customer wants to know. The two-way dialog is a variation on the journalist's model. This reference interview helps the customer narrow his or her focus onto the question they want answered while allowing the reference librarian to assess what he or she may be able to provide to satisfy the customer's need. Does this sound strange to you? Well, it's not really strange. We all begin our research with a set of assumptions, and sometimes they aren't necessarily the right ones. That is why, again and again, experienced genealogists tell us, "Start with what you know, and then work backwards." Beginning this way provides you with facts, from which you can construct a framework of other facts, and continue to fill in the structure with more and more details. Continuing the research always involves asking questions-of yourself, of other people, and of the resource materials you discover. In this week's "Along Those Lines . . ." column, let's evaluate the questions you must continually ask yourself in order to further your research. HOW DO I PREPARE? Much of family history research is based on defining your research scope and setting your own expectations and goals. Obviously, no one can walk into a library on a Saturday morning and expect to complete the research on seven generations of his or her family tree. Let's face it: that's an unrealistic goal. Whenever I am planning a genealogical research trip, regardless of whether it's to my local public library or to a library, archive, courthouse, church, cemetery, or other venue some distance away, I develop a plan. I start with a finite subject or small group of subjects. For example, when traveling to our MORGAN family reunion in Roxboro, North Carolina, I might set the goal that I will visit the two cemeteries in which my MORGAN ancestors are buried going back to the late 1700s. The scope of my research may be strictly the MORGAN ancestors, and not necessarily the collateral lines, buried there. I will want to locate all the graves, accurately transcribe the inscriptions, and obtain any additional information about the cemeteries, my ancestors' lots, the interment information, and other details. That will necessitate making an appointment to meet with and to interview the sextons/administrators of the cemeteries. I also will want to take photographs of the cemeteries and of all the graves. These are realistic goals for a one-day trip, provided I can arrange appointments with the sextons. In advance of the trip, though, I will compile all the information I already have and know about each of the persons who likely are buried in those cemeteries. I organize the documents I have, enter the data into my genealogy database program, and print a descendant's chart and family group sheets to take with me. I then READ all of that information for each family group. Next, I go back through the document copies I've gathered over the years, make sure they are arranged by person and then in chronological sequence. I then take the time to RE-READ every document. Notice I didn't say "look at" or "scan" or "browse through" the documents. I actually take the time to RE-READ them as if I had never seen them before. This experience can help you link tidbits of data which you gathered piecemeal over time and connect them to form new, logical knowledge. I often experience an "Aha!" during this review process, and you will, too. WHAT ARE THE QUESTIONS? You have to ask questions about each person or fact you want to research. Let's use the journalist's model and the questions they use when gathering facts to report a news story. (As a former journalism student, I'll tell you upfront that I'm rearranging the order of the questions in order to fit a genealogical research model.) WHO? Set the stage for your research by determining the exact person for whom you are seeking information. Make sure you have the right person in your sights. You may be fortunate to have someone with a unique name, such as Warren Goodloe MORGAN. But is the person you're seeking a "Junior" or a "III," or could the person you'll discover be a namesake of the person you really want? I spent almost a year researching a Jesse HOLDER in Laurens County, South Carolina, and dealing with date discrepancies before confirming that the Jesse HOLDER I really wanted was a nephew of this first Jesse. "My Jesse' was named by the first Jesse's younger brother who loved and admired his older sibling. WHERE? It is vitally important to determine exactly where the person was at the time you are seeking information about him or her. You can waste an inordinate amount of time looking in the wrong place. Studying the history of the area where your ancestors lived will help you place them in historical context and provide a strong perspective for your research. Remember that geopolitical boundaries changed over time, and the fact that my ancestor's 1781 marriage record appeared in the records of Caswell County, North Carolina, doesn't mean that his will and probate records will appear there -- especially when a new county, Person County, was formed from Caswell in 1791. WHEN? The 'when' is certainly as important as the 'where' in your research of an individual. The boundary issue is a critical one, but it is also important to know what other events influenced your ancestor. Consider the impacts that war, famine, drought, political instability, depression or economic recession, natural disasters, ethnic or religious oppression or discrimination, slavery, and a host of other factors may have had on your ancestors. Local, county, parish, province, state, national and international history all exerted some influence on your ancestors. Invest some time to understand history and factor those influences into your family history equation. WHAT and WHY? Consider just what is being recorded or documented. Ask yourself why the information is being recorded. For what purpose was it being recorded? A census was taken to determine the number of people in an area and other demographic, social, economic, racial, and other data. Generally a census is taken to understand the population and its needs, to establish adequate political representation, and to be used in developing programs and funding for services. Death certificates are used for many purposes: to document a death, to record trends in causes of death, to authorize a mortuary to handle the body and to arrange for final disposition, and for other reasons. If you understand WHAT the document is supposed to record and WHY, you can better understand what other document types might be used in the absence of one you cannot locate. All of these questions are important, and you can also add others. I always ask another question of myself: "WAS THERE ANY REASON WHY THE INFORMATION MIGHT HAVE BEEN INCORRECTLY RECORDED?" There are always opportunities for information to be recorded incorrectly. The levels of literacy of the person recording the information or the individual subject seem to conspire to create errors. However, any time information is copied, transcribed, extracted, or abstracted, errors can be made. Worse still, of course, are those circumstances where incorrect information was intentionally recorded for some purpose. When some piece of information doesn't quite fit or doesn't make sense, ask yourself if there may have been some reason for it to have been recorded that way. WHAT DO I DO WITH THE ANSWERS? After you ask the questions, conduct the research, and evaluate the data, it is time to decide what to do with the information. If you have done your ancillary research into the historical period in which your ancestor lived, you will have a much better sense of his or her place in the world. You also will understand the influences that your ancestor may have experienced. Put yourself in his or her place, and imagine what your life would have been like at that time, and how you would have responded to these outside influences. Consider what options you might have had and what decisions you might have made. Include the type of work your ancestor did, his/her financial resources, the family unit and its condition, what opportunities existed, and what impediments might have stood in his/her way. Once you stand in your ancestor's shoes, as it were, you may be better able to assess what their own decisions may have been. WHERE DO I TAKE IT FROM HERE? With all of this effort accomplished, consider the information you locate and put it into chronological sequence with other information you've already acquired. Re-read everything again and look for patterns. Often, as you learn more about an ancestor, you come to understand him or her, and you may see patterns of actions that repeat themselves. For example, you may find that an ancestor relocated farther westward every two to three years, never purchasing any land until he reached the place where he finally settled. If you recognized this pattern, you might anticipate a plan to migrate west in stages until he found what he felt was his ideal place. AND THE ANSWER IS . . . There are as many answers to these questions as there are people and their life stories. It is important that we not just wander from fact to fact and be buffeted in our research by what data we encounter. There should be a plan, a goal, and a set of expectations, and by performing a 'reference interview' with ourselves, we can better focus our own research strategies. Happy hunting. George __________________________________________________________________ Copyright 1998-2003, MyFamily.com Inc. and its subsidiaries. Reprinted with permission from the "Ancestry Daily News" and George Morgan.