The final step in the Research Like a Pro process is writing a research report. This report summarizes the question, objective, and all the research performed during the project. Research reports explain your reasoning — a proof argument — and convince others of your conclusions.
Research reports are critical when resolving difficult genealogy problems. Just writing this report forced me to deal with conflicting evidence and explain my positions. The Smart females in my tree have been a huge brick wall in my family tree for years, but undertaking this project means I’ve reached a measure of success with this line.
So, here it is — all 13 pages and 120+ source citations of it. By far the largest, most complex research report I’ve written!
When people say they are “doing genealogy,” the fifth step in the Research Like a Pro (RLP) process is probably what they’re envisioning — the nitty, gritty work in libraries and archives. It’s definitely the most fun part of family research. Finding those golden nuggets of evidence is such a high!
But a challenging research problem requires the four steps we previously discussed in this series: forming a research objective, analyzing sources, researching the location, and making a research plan. If the answer to my question could be answered directly by a single piece of evidence, wandering aimlessly may eventually lead me there. But when a problem requires indirect and negative evidence, it is necessary to collect multiple pieces of evidence, analyze them, and build an argument — all things that require a plan and thorough record keeping.
Research logs are key to doing the research and recording my findings. Some people use paper research logs or notebooks, but I prefer electronic ones. I use an Excel spreadsheet and save it to my Microsoft OneDrive in the folder I created for the project. My OneDrive is synced across all my devices — laptop, tablet, and phone — so I always have it with me. However, typing in an Excel spreadsheet from my phone or tablet is slow, so I bring my laptop for planned research sessions. If I need to record something when I don’t have my laptop, I usually snap photos of the source and its contents with my phone and add it to my log when I’m back at a keyboard. If it’s an electronic source, I either email a link back to myself or save it to a USB drive with a similarly-named text file containing the source citation.
Yes, research logs should have source citations, and I really do try to make them at this step — but I’m lazy. I will make a source citation if I’m in a repository where I must create it then to capture all the information correctly. But if I’m doing something standard like census research or marriage records, I write quick notes and will craft the citation when I write my findings.
For the Mary Smart McMurry research project, I took my research plan and decided which of the actions from the prioritized research strategies section I could do in the allotted time. (I’m writing an article about Mary for the spring issue of Stirpes, so I do have a deadline for this project.) I tried to tackle all the strategies from my plan, but I stalled with the DNA component. I may try to add some DNA evidence in the future, but it has been difficult getting all the best known testers to grant access to their data.
So, what my research log look like? Here’s a screenshot:
When I find a key piece of evidence I want to investigate further, I make the text red and sometimes bold important words. I also like to make separate tabs on the spreadsheet for areas of research that need their own space for organizing. One example is “Naming Patterns” on the image above. On that tab, I listed of all the Smart siblings’ children and made notes about similarities. Another tab (not pictured) is a Smart Siblings timeline I created to compare movements of Mary and her hypothesized siblings.
I’ve decided not to post my entire research log here — it’s big, and I kind of want to keep it to myself until I reveal the next step in the process: Writing the Research Report. But if you are researching Mary Smart McMurry or any of her hypothesized siblings, contact me and I’ll share the log.
Doing the research is definitely my favorite part of this process, but it is closely followed by the final step: Writing the Research Report.
Happy new year! Perhaps the passing of time feels especially poignant for genealogists who spend their days studying years gone by — I sure feel that way, at least! It’s a great time to recall the changes of the past twelve months and feel the potential and fresh start a new calendar signifies.
Millions of Americans can trace their roots to passengers on the Mayflower. These 102 individuals came to the New World in 1620 to worship as they felt convicted or to seek a better life. Without any clear ties to New England in my family tree, I never realized I was descendant of a Mayflower passenger — until earlier this year.
I visited RelativeFinder, a website by the BYU Family History Technology Lab, and entered my username and password for FamilySearch. From this information, RelativeFinder searches for famous people in your family tree. The search is based on the shared family tree at FamilySearch, which is notoriously incorrect (at least for me) most of the time. As I waited for the results, I reminded myself to treat anything that popped up as complete fiction.
At the top of my list was George Soule, Mayflower Passenger, my 10x-great-grandfather.
But as I looked at the links between George Soule and myself, it looked surprisingly…correct?! The family trees of Mayflower passengers are well-researched by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants and compiled into volumes that document at least the first five generations. Soule researchers have extended their lineages to seven generations on some lines in the Mayflower Families in Progress (MFIP) “pink books.” It is these books that listed George Soule’s descendents through Elizabeth Soles, born August 2, 1795, in Bladen County, North Carolina, who married Phillip Lemuel Faulk and migrated to Pike County, Alabama. These are my confirmed 4x-great-grandparents!
So this Thanksgiving is special to me, knowing I have a direct connection to a man who came to this land for religious freedom and a better life. George Soule landed at Plymouth as a servant of Edward Winslow, survived that first harsh year, and was one of the Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving. After completing his indenture, George married, began a family, and amassed modest estate through hard work. Read more about George Soule on his Wikipedia page, at American Ancestors, or through his family association, Soule Kindred in America.
I have several family members who read my blog, and I’m sure they’re asking themselves, “Am I also a descendant of George Soule?” Here’s my line from the previously-mentioned Elizabeth Soles:
Elizabeth Soles (who married Phillip Lemuel Faulk) > Mahala Elizabeth Faulk (who married James S. Fowler) > Rebecca Lurana Fowler (who married James Monroe McKaskle) > Lula McKaskle (who married George Washington McMurry) > my grandmother Ethel McMurry Horne
There are hundreds of descendants of James Monroe McKaskle and Rebecca Lurana Fowler in and around my home community of Liddieville, Louisiana. If you are a descendant of one of their children — Mary Frances McKaskle, Charity McKaskle, Martille McKaskle, Nancy Bell McKaskle, Lula McKaskle, or Willie Keiffer McKaskle, Sr. — congrats, you’re also a Mayflower descendant.
Another reason my October was filled to capacity was my first speaking engagement. I presented “American Revolution: More Than Two Sides” to fifth graders at my son’s school on October 24.
At the beginning of the school year, I told my older son’s teacher I was a genealogist and new DAR member. I volunteered my time and expertise for anything she needed, and she came back with a request — giving a talk about the complexities of the American Revolution. Specifically, the “sides” of the American Revolution (patriot, loyalist, neutralist) and the factors that led colonists to join these sides. The talk served as an introduction to the fifth graders’ American history project this semester.
I had a great time researching this topic and presenting to the 100-student audience. In addition to the socioeconomic aspects of choosing a side, we discussed the concerns of Native Americans, slaves and free blacks, other countries like France and Spain, and religious groups such as the Anglicans, Quakers, and Jews.
The fifth graders were an attentive group and asked great questions. My favorites were, “How did you learn all this?” and “How do you know what your ancestors were doing way back then?” My answers: Learn library research skills and cursive — that’s how you locate original records and know how to read them. These skills are so often overlooked in our digital world but are vital to genealogists and historians.
I know the fifth graders will have some interesting projects, and I look forward to seeing them in a few weeks at their project expo. Meanwhile, my son thinks his mom is one smart cookie.
