Dear MCGS members and other Listers: On one of the other lists I administer, there is a very active collaborative effort and sharing as Juliana mentions in her article. I would encourage that sharing of this type of report can be very effective. It may help you connect with others, if not now, in future via the archives. And it could provide sound information that may either keep one from chasing one's own tail or knock a few bricks from the wall. Happy Trails, Lauren List Admin ===================================================================== "SHARING FINDINGS IN A REPORT," by Juliana Smith ===================================================================== Collaboration can be among the most rewarding parts of family history research. Finding another researcher to work with gives you someone to share your finds with who totally understands you. This is a person who can relate to your obsessive need to stay up until the wee hours of the morning browsing through a New York City census, page by page, because your ancestors are hiding there. Your fellow researcher is not going to look at you like you're nuts when, after a full week working on a computer, filing, and doing assorted office work, your idea of a great Saturday is working on a computer searching databases, filing papers, and doing assorted office work. Someone still needs to explain this one to my husband.) This is someone who understands your obsession for collecting books, and why instead of reading this week's bestseller, you're deeply engrossed in a history book. Your research partner gets it--and probably does the same. One of the challenges of working with someone else is how to share what you've found and the ground you've covered. I'm fortunate in that I am collaborating with my mom on our research. The problem is, with both of us researching, we often find ourselves duplicating work. There's nothing more frustrating than to stay up half the night and make an exciting discovery, only to learn that my partner found it last week. That just takes the wind right out of my sails. To avoid this problem, I've started creating little reports of my family history exploits. I'm finding them very helpful, so today we'll take a little time and discuss putting findings into a report. WHY? Why would I want to add to the prolific piles of papers and electronic files that constantly threaten to overwhelm me? Putting my thoughts down on paper is a helpful part of my thinking process. As I create my report, I am analyzing my finds and as I transcribe records, and explain any rationale I used to connect the find to our family, I often also find ideas for new avenues to research. Of course, sometimes I also find that my research has holes and I'm way off base, but even these negative discoveries are still discoveries. Disproving a relationship is as important as proving one--although it's not nearly as fun. HOW? Later when my brain cells inevitably fail, this report will also remind me where I left off. I can easily review what I've done, how I came to any conclusions, and where I've already searched. In addition, if I later run into someone else who is also researching that person, I can quickly and easily share my report with them and get them up to speed on my research. For those individuals where I haven't quite proved the connection to the family, these reports can be invaluable. I recently created one of my Tobin family. Those of you who have read my columns before, have probably heard me whining about this family before. My third great grandfather Thomas Tobin was a hatter, and although I have found several records of his life, he's one of those ancestors that seems to have appeared from no where. After digging through some old files and reviewing an interview my mother had almost thirty years ago with an aunt who has since passed on, I found a mention of a brother named Peter, also a hatter. Here was an avenue that we had totally overlooked. I set to work researching Peter and as I located census records for him and traced him through the years, I began creating a report. I chose a word processor for the task because I wanted the flexibility to include a variety of records, with varying fields of information, as well as lengthier narratives with my analysis. In the report I've included: 1) Records found (arranged chronologically, including source citations) 2) Notes 3) Follow-up I transcribed the records, gleaning every clue I could from each one. As the pieces fell together in my mind, I made notes of any clues I noticed and my rationale for any conclusions I drew. As the pieces fell into place, I had ideas for later research. These ideas were included in a follow-up section at the end. There are examples of professional reports found in the appendixes of "The BCG Standards Manual," and Chapter 5 in Karen Clifford's "Becoming an Accredited Genealogist" addresses "Report Writing." While most of the examples are aimed at professionals doing research for clients, I found a review of them helpful and used them as a basis for my report. WHAT ELSE? My findings started as quick notes, taken as I researched late into the night. The next morning when I was a bit more alert I worked them into more coherent sentences and made sure all my sources were completely cited so Mom could easily pull the records I had found online from home. I was glad I didn't wait long to put my findings into the report, because despite the fact that I just did this research over the holidays, as I looked over the report this morning, I was reminded of several follow-ups I wanted to do and had promptly forgotten. (You know where I'll be tonight!) Now, Mom has a full report of my findings to keep in her files and we can plan our next step. I also dated the report and put a copy into my research log. In it, not only did I note the records I found, but also the records I searched unsuccessfully. Since the records I found are transcribed, it is now easy to insert them and the source citations into my genealogy database and into existing timelines. With all that done, I'm ready to go back for more. Hopefully, Mom will be getting another report from me tonight. REFERENCES: Clifford, Karen. "Becoming An Accredited Genealogist--Plus 100 Tips To Ensure Your Success" (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1998) http://www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=831&key=P1184 Board for Certification of Genealogists. "The BCG Genealogical Standards Manual" (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 2000) http://www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=831&key=P1956 (Copyright 1998-2003, MyFamily.com Inc. and its subsidiaries.) Reprinted with permission from the "Ancestry Daily News".