It’s Called Research; Not Search
Genealogists
don’t search and find! What fun would
that be? It’s called re-search for a
reason. We don’t just sit down at a
computer and locate, discover, come across, uncover or stumble across
information in an afternoon. There is
not a single go-to location for vital records, or church records. There are so many repositories that contain
records and there are many databases that contain copies or transcripts of
those records. In addition, some records
may never have existed or may have been destroyed. For each locality and for each time period
research varies. It is for these reasons
that we do what we do and don’t what we don’t.
Genealogists don’t:
Genealogists don’t:
- look at just one film
- search one database
- look at a single index
- look at one census year
- record information from one source
- use one document as a source
- look through a single book
Genealogists
do:
- search all possible records
- search all possible databases in all possible locations
- collect everything we find
- use all possible documents to verify and prove our information
- analyze and accept contradictory information
- use many available sources as stepping stones
- collect information on all family members
- fully search an area and the comprehensive searches of nearby areas
- regularly check databases as they are being continually updated
We search and re-search, over and over again, knowing that
for each piece of information we located, we will have more questions than
answers. Thus, we need to search and
re-search all over again.
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