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Research Plans
DO YOU HAVE A FOCUS? We are well past the dawn of the Internet. Digital images from the National Archives, the Library of Congress, state and local repositories, as well as millions of books are being posted daily for our use. The resources at our fingertips are vast and will explode as the digital imaging project by the Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints comes on line. This huge influx of databases and images brings an overwhelming amount of information into our homes.
A research plan for a single document can be created. This may include a transcription (an exact reading of the document) if it is not typed or an abstract (a summary) if it is easily read. A research focus or objective needs to be developed, if one isn't already in place. The plan created for the G. W. Harris patent includes creating a neighborhood map for the Cow Creek area in Burnet County, Texas. This map, along with the completed research helped demonstrate the physical location between the Harris family and two others that three of his children intermarried with. A plat on a topographical map and an aerial photograph were part of the end-products of this plan. If a long-term project is undertaken, research plans can be created for a phase of research. A plan for beginning research in Montgomery County, Ohio is provided here as a sample. Just as reports vary widely in their contents, so do research plans. These two give you examples used in very different situations.
In either case, the researcher must keep in mind that a plan evolves as sources are searched and evidence, or the lack of evidence, is discovered. There is no point in following through on a plan in Ames County, if you have come to the conclusion during your research that the person you are pursuing lived in Bonnell County. A new direction must be taken, a new plan devised.
DO YOU HAVE A FOCUS? We are well past the dawn of the Internet. Digital images from the National Archives, the Library of Congress, state and local repositories, as well as millions of books are being posted daily for our use. The resources at our fingertips are vast and will explode as the digital imaging project by the Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints comes on line. This huge influx of databases and images brings an overwhelming amount of information into our homes.
A research plan for a single document can be created. This may include a transcription (an exact reading of the document) if it is not typed or an abstract (a summary) if it is easily read. A research focus or objective needs to be developed, if one isn't already in place. The plan created for the G. W. Harris patent includes creating a neighborhood map for the Cow Creek area in Burnet County, Texas. This map, along with the completed research helped demonstrate the physical location between the Harris family and two others that three of his children intermarried with. A plat on a topographical map and an aerial photograph were part of the end-products of this plan. If a long-term project is undertaken, research plans can be created for a phase of research. A plan for beginning research in Montgomery County, Ohio is provided here as a sample. Just as reports vary widely in their contents, so do research plans. These two give you examples used in very different situations.
In either case, the researcher must keep in mind that a plan evolves as sources are searched and evidence, or the lack of evidence, is discovered. There is no point in following through on a plan in Ames County, if you have come to the conclusion during your research that the person you are pursuing lived in Bonnell County. A new direction must be taken, a new plan devised.