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From: Barbara Schenck <>
Subject: Re: [TGF] Are research reports published?
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:28:38 -0500


>
>
>
> Michael wrote:
>
> There are several blogs that do exactly this, but a very good example is
> "Genea-Blogie" by Craig Manson. Specifically, he recently had a series of
> articles in which he broke through a brick wall, and discussed his process
> every step of the way, including the "wrong way" that caused the brickwall
> in the first place.


Thank you, Michael, for mentioning Craig's blog. I have read some of his
posts and need to get back to doing that as, yes, he does explain very
clearly the process he undertakes in trying to resolve a research problem.


Randy wrote:
I invite all of you to go search my blog for "Russell Smith" and "Devier
James Lanphear Smith" to see my

> ongoing search for Devier's parents.


I've been following Devier's story, Randy. Thank you for posting it. Will go
back and check on Russell.


>
> One more thought: I've been reading (again) Emily Anne Croom's book "The
> Sleuth Book for Genealogists" (Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore,
> reprinted 2008). She has three excellent Case Studies in this book:
>
> * "Finding the Parent Generation: The Search for Isaac Heldreth's Parents"
> (pp 141-149)
>
> * "Finding Slave Ancestors: The Search for the Family of Archie Davis Sr."
> (pp. 150-162)
>
> * "Finding the Parent Generation: The Search for Ann (Robertson) Croom's
> Parents" (pp 163-202)
>

I haven't re-read those in several years. Will go back and do so.

>
>
> Another book with useful Case Studies, with more than a summary, is Marsha
> Hoffman Rising's "The Family Tree Problem Solver" (Family Tree Books,
> Cincinnati, 2005).


I re-read Marsha Hoffman Rising's book regularly. It always inspires.
Another thing that does is to play audiotapes of Helen Leary discussing
anything. I listen to them whenever we are on road trips (or just around
town) and run my current genealogical conundrum around in my brain, trying
to use Helen's suggestions to find a new approach to cracking it.

>
>
>
> Michael wrote:
>
> I have found that the best place for learning the GPS is a combination of
> reading books/journal articles, and hands-on research. Pick a random family
> in the census or some other record, make up a research focus, and dig in!
> (After all, if your goal is to become a professional, then ultimately this
> is what you will be doing.)
>
> You can try to apply the GPS to someone else's work, but it is better
> practice to do it yourself, I think.
>

Learning by doing is the best practice. That seems to be where Litchman's
approach ultimately leads. In his article in the NGS NewsMagazine he talked
about analyzing others' articles, but said that ultimately his group began
to write and critique their own. The workshop Angela has proposed would
certainly be one way of doing that. But in a less constrained format, we
can do something similar by writing our own preliminary research reports on
small questions and share them with others who are interested in either the
subject matter or the methodology (or both).

Linda and I are hoping to do this as an outgrowth of the article discussions
we've had on campfire. We have nothing ready for 'discussion' yet. But when
we do, if anyone would like to join us, please email me and I will send you
an invitation to the campfire room where the discussion will take place.
Like our current article discussion group, there is no specific time to show
up. The ongoing discussion exists there and people can drop in and make
comments as they choose.

Barbara

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