This was on today's ancestry news.. hope this helps many! If you do not subscribe to the newsletter, there are some great tips, and articles. Lanita GEORGE G. MORGAN: "ALONG THOSE LINES . . ." "Tips for Working Smarter in Your Research, Part I" ===================================================================== We all encounter pitfalls in our research. Sometimes these are brick walls that result from lack of resources, lost or destroyed data, uncommunicative relatives, uncooperative courthouse clerks, and other obstacles. Unfortunately, though, we sometimes do it to ourselves. I'm the first to admit that I also am guilty of undermining my own research by not working as effectively as I should. However, over the years, I've learned how to 'work smarter' in conducting my own research. In this week's "Along Those Lines . . ." column, I'd like to share some ways that you can improve your work approach to genealogical and family history research. GETTING THE BIG PICTURE We collect informational fragments of our ancestors' and families' lives over time, and these seldom are discovered in any particular order. It is always helpful to organize the facts of an individual's live, and the documentary evidence, in chronological sequence, and then RE-READ everything as if you've never seen it before. It's easy to just scan or browse through it because you think you 'know' it, but I'll wager that by rereading all the material in chronological order you'll see something new. And don't make the mistake of just doing this exercise once. Over time you will have collected more information on a person, his or her family members, information about the local history and geography, and a host of other pertinent information. And while the facts you have uncovered about other people's lives may not ring a bell at that time, when you reread your ancestor's records, these other facts may assert themselves and add a new insight or clarity. Create a timeline for your ancestor, or what I prefer to call an 'Ancestor Profile' (http://www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=831&key=A092106 ) which helps bring information about your ancestor, his or her family members, and a variety of other data together in outline format. At that juncture, you begin to see the person's life as a whole. Sometimes this provides the perspective you need to look for missing information. MAPPING YOUR ANCESTORS Every genealogist should be using maps, both contemporary and historical, in his or her research. There are several reasons for this. 1) You need to know what governmental entity had jurisdiction over the area in which your ancestors lived at that particular time in order to know WHO created the records, WHY they were created, and potentially WHERE the records may now reside. 2) If you are a member of AAA, use your membership to obtain maps of all the areas in which you are researching. AAA can provide maps at different levels of detail - from country to state/province to county/parish to city. Then, purchase felt tip markers of different colors and establish a color code scheme for your different families or branches. Use the markers to indicate who lived where at what time. Make notes on the map or type labels (which also are available in different colors) and affix them to the map. A favorite tactic I use is to draw the migration path of a family from Point A to Point B, using historical information about migration routes at the time. You may find that your ancestors stopped for a while along the route and there may be records in the intermediate counties. 3) Use maps to understand the locations in which your ancestors lived for purposes of evaluating land records, locating census records, determining voting precincts, determining the towns where they transacted business, and narrowing the list of possible religious institutions with which they might have been involved. MAKE A LIST OF RESEARCH GOALS Professional genealogical researchers, before they begin working on a project for a client, do advance work to set their goals. They gather all the information they have and organize it, usually sequentially as discussed above, and then prepare a list of their research goals. Using this methodical approach, you can conduct your research in a much more time- and cost-effective manner. For example, let's say you are working on one family line and you know there are a number of things you want to learn. If you determine that you want to obtain proof of marriage for several family members, prepare a list of the couples' full names, the probable locations where they were married and possible dates, and then determine where those records might be located. You also might want to obtain death certificates for all your great-uncles and -aunts in a particular place. Prepare a similar list with full names, locations where they lived (and/or died), and the probable dates of death. Next, perform some additional, preliminary research to confirm A) that the records you seek really exist, B) where those records are now stored, and C) how you can access the records or obtain copies. You can do much of this by checking websites, but always make a phone call to verify access the data. (Imagine the dismay of a researcher arriving at the county courthouse only to find that all the records she sought were in off-site storage and required several days advance notice to recall the box containing those she wanted to access.) USE A RESEARCH LOG Few genealogists I know maintain research logs for the persons and lines they are tracing. As a result, they often waste time researching the same materials again and again and waste money photocopying the same book pages. Author Brent Holcomb has produced any number of books about South Carolina records. Imagine my excitement--on at least three occasions--to have found a book containing extracts from one of my Revolutionary War ancestors who lived in South Carolina, only to return home and find that I already had that material. The use of a structured log sheet detailing what resources you have accessed, where you accessed them, what you researched, and what the results were, can eliminate redundant and wasteful research. It also can help you retrace your own research for materials you may once have thought useless but which you suddenly may want to locate and access again. Ancestry.com has two forms that can provide the structure you need. The Research Calendar at http://www.ancestry.com/save/charts/researchcal.htm provides forms that you can use for a family or for an individual. The Source Summary for Family Information at http://www.ancestry.com/save/charts/sourcesum.htm provides an excellent format for keeping track of resource materials of many types (books, journals, microform, etc.) you have already used. You also can produce your own forms to meet your own research need, using a word processor or spreadsheet program. The latter provides the option of entering data and the flexibility of sorting it in a variety of ways. And if you have been doing a good job entering source citations in your genealogy database program, you may want to check to see if yours will produce a report of your master source database. SUMMARY Next week, we'll look at another group of ideas for 'working smarter' in your research. In the meantime, Happy hunting! George __________________________________________________________________ George G. Morgan would like to hear from you at atl@ahaseminars.com but, due to the volume of e-mail received, he is unable to answer every message. Please note that he cannot assist you with your individual research. Visit George's website at http://ahaseminars.com/atl for information about speaking engagements. Copyright 2003, MyFamily.com Inc. All rights reserved. FOR A PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE, e-mail it to a friend, or submit your feedback on it, just go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=831&key=A678606 and click on the appropriate icon in the sidebar.