Over the years my research practices have changed. Each revision I make is to shift my research towards becoming a more efficient and streamlined process. Maybe this is because of my professional background in process design, or maybe it is my inner desire to have everything as organized as it can be. Regardless it has caused me to develop ways of organizing my research that I have not seen anywhere else. Efficient research is not necessarily about having your research expertly organized in one form, but rather in many. Its about knowing which way of looking at the information will make it the easiest to understand for a particular research question.
Tip #1: Handwritten notes are not outdated
To many the concept of using a pen and paper to take notes is a thing of yester-year, but to me it is one the easiest ways to capture an abundance of information in a concise space. When I was going through university I was one of the few students that still used a pen and paper for notetaking - the majority of my peers having cast that aside in favour of a tablet or laptop. I only use notebooks to record rough notes when Im chasing down a lead. While recording the relevant information in my notebook I keep all the related sites open on my computer. The notebook allows me to see the common information from all the sites on one page without having to flip back and forth between them. After I have confirmed that what I am researching is accurate, I begin recording the information in a word document.
If a lead dies out before I can prove or disprove it, I copy the links into the 'notes' section for that person in my Ancestry tree.
Tip #2: Record your conclusions in a written document
My handwritten notes were great however they failed to put all the research on the same topic in the same place and have it be easily understood y anyone other than me. What I ended up doing was writing the history in a word document. This made it fast and easy for me to pick up on research where I left off. It also made it easily understandable for someone else to understand how I reached certain conclusions. Partly for efficency and partly because I hate writing them, I dont use formal citations instead I leave the corresponding links.
Tip #3: Flag your notebooks
So what happens if I need to go back and find that page later? Well I had to cross that bridge about a year ago when I had 800 pages filled with notes. The process of finding the page I was looking for was tedious and quite frankly felt pointless. I knew there had to be a way to make this more efficient without getting rid of the old fashioned pen and paper. That is when I found post it tabs. I could write the person or family name on the tab then attach it to the page. Immediately the daunting stack of notebooks began to look more organized and approachable. The tabs allowed me to quickly find the page of interest without having to flip through each notebook one page at a time. If you want to take this one step further you can combine writing the research topic with your own colour coding system.
Tip #4: Make a family timeline in Excel
I wrote a post here on how to make a timeline in Excel and explained why they are useful. Originally I was making timelines in my notebook, however I found they quickly out the pages and required frequent rewriting when new information was added. Excel provides a quick and easy way to add information without having to rewrite everything. As an added bonus you can colour code the cells to make the information easier to digest.
Tip #5: Create a list of addresses
If your interested researching the social history of where your ancestor lived, then you probably know that their home address is crucial to your research. When I only was considering census records it was pretty easy to keep track of the areas I needed to research, however a lot can happen within the ten years between census records. I created a paper table where I list the addresses of families by year. Yes I know I reverted back to the old fashioned pen and paper, but trust me on this one it is so much more valuable then having to occupy a your screen with the list. I organized the list in two ways. The first was by county. The second was by year. I organized the addresses chronologically beginning in 1851. I skipped the 1841 census for two reasons: firstly it didnt provide me with exact addresses, and secondly there are few sources that describe the living conditions in that era. If your not a fan of pen and paper you could create this table in Excel.
Tip #6: Establish a file naming system and stick to it
There is nothing more frustrating than thinking you have a downloaded a record but not being able to find it. One way that this often happens is that people dont rename the file after downloading it. The majority of files I have downloaded dont have a name reflecting their contents. I could write a whole post in itself on the system I use so Im not going to go into detail here. The most important thing is to make sure that you have the record type, year, and individual(s) name in the file name. If you want to take it a step further you can add folders to divide the records by family or record type.
Tip #7: Keep frequently used information on post-its
If you have ever researched a foreign country or had to perform research in a foreign language then you know that your constantly turning to Google Translate or Google Maps. I like to keep a few post-it notes handy and write down important phrases or draw a map. I do this on a post-it as opposed to directly on a page of my notebook so that I can move the post-it with me and dont need to keep flipping back and forth.
To draw the maps I often find the area on Google Maps than I scale my viewer until the area of interest will fit on the post-it. Next I begin to plot major cities or towns. If there are places that are constantly occurring in my research, then I search for them and plot them also on the map. You wont be able to fit everything on one post-it but you should be able to fit enough to save yourself Googling a new location every few minutes.
For foreign languages I like to just search for common phrases or words that appear in documents. Often I start by translating the header on a church document or census record, then proceed on to the actual contents.
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