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From: "Helen Leary" <>
Subject: [APG] Extended research project report
Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2001 12:03:18 -0400


Dear Juvanne:

Re: Extended-Research Project Report:

I'm not sure what kind of "definition" you are looking for, but I checked
the BCG Application Guide (the 2000 and the 2001 editions) and it seems to
me that the guidelines are pretty well defined. (I've included the ones from
2000 below; 2001 only adds more specific references to the Appendix C
examples [6 through 9]).

The first "Note" in the Guide appears to address your question. The Board
recognizes that not all genealogical problems have a solution, and that even
if there is one, it may not be possible to find it within a client's
authorized time or budget limits.

Examples 5 and 6 in the BCG Standards Manual appear to address the kinds of
reports you are sending to this client. Example 5 is a 4-page initial
report; Example 6 is a 14 page "Continuation Report" (although all pages of
each report are not included in the Manual). I don't know how many reports
you have sent your client, or how extensive each of them are. <If each one
reports your findings in only one or two documents, and if each report is
only a few pages long> consider sending BCG more than one such report. But
if each report includes findings from "a wide variety of sources for both
primary and secondary data" send BCG only one of the reports, even though it
may be from the middle of an ongoing project. (Presumably, you have reminded
the client in your report where the research stood when you began that phase
of the research, of course, and proposed at least a rudimentary plan for the
next phase--so your report should be clear to the BCG judges without a lot
of additional explanation. But you might consider including a brief "Note to
the Judges" explaining that this is the X of XX reports to a client who
authorized numerous continuations of the initial project.)

Excerpt from 2000 edition of *The BCG Application Guide," 8-9:

CGRS 3: Submit one extended-research project report that conforms to the
following guidelines:
? It represents a search for the answer to a genealogical question that is
not resolved by data within a single document.
NOTE: The search need not have produced the answer, provided that a
reasonable, efficient effort was made to find it and that the effort is
sufficiently explained in the report.
? It represents a project that entailed examination of a wide variety of
sources for both primary and secondary data.
? If the people involved in the genealogical question are your or your
spouse’s ancestors, they are no closer to either of you than your
grandparents.
? Your data-collection, evidence-evaluation, and compilation methods conform
to The BCG Genealogical Standards Manual and the principles illustrated in
the Formal Report examples in its Appendix C.
NOTE: It is not necessary to duplicate the letterhead style, typeface,
information arrangement, or precise format of the examples.
? The report includes at least four photocopies of supporting documents.

<Note to Juvanna:> If the report you choose did not include photocopies when
you sent it to the client, collect photocopies (or prints from microfilm,
CD, website, etc.) of 4 records from which you reported the data to your
client (in transcriptions or abstracts, for example). Include these copies
with your BCG submission. Add a note to them that you are doing this to
conform to the BCG guidelines, but that you did not, in fact, send these
copies to the client because . . .[whatever your reason was].





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