![\"library,](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/7161008774_2ab4818ae7_z.jpg?resize=345%2C456&ssl=1\")
My best tip for any kind of research is straight out of comedian Jonathan Winters\u2019s mouth in The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming<\/em>! \u201cWe have GOT to get organized!\u201d Knowing my own tendencies in the opposite directions\u2014piles of books and papers, urgen notes that I can\u2019t make sense of, numbers written down that mean . . . ? I have developed a number of habits\u2014compulsions, you could say\u2014to get past my disorder disability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to do genealogy or really any complicated or long-term, even short-term, research project, you might want to think about what \u201csystems\u201d (yes, I\u2019m laughing) you can develop to make your life easier. Think of them as supports, not burdens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A good example is maintaining a list of books you want to consult. A lot of information I need is online, but often a source lists a book or journal that isn\u2019t. But it may be available in a library somewhere. HathiTrust<\/a> lets me find out which US libraries have it (possibly even electronic copies).<\/p>\n\n\n\n I copy and paste the bibliographic information about these elusive publications into a file called \u201cLibrary Searches,\u201d organized by, naturally, library. When my genealogy club visits the New York Public Library, for example, I have a ready-made list of books that I know they have. A recent vacation in Virginia included two days in the Library of Virginia, ditto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another benefit of the list is that, during COVID, when I couldn\u2019t visit to libraries, I could still request books through InterLibrary Loan. Given my flea-sized attention span, I naturally learned to write a few words in the description of each book about what to look for and which family, otherwise . . . When I\u2019ve seen a book, I flag it in the list so that I don\u2019t search for it again. (You hear the voice of experience.). My Library Searches list is now thirty-three pages long. Thirty-three pages! That may sound onerous, but bear in mind, it\u2019s been built up one book at a time, over a period of years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Creating footnotes (reference-type) is another good habit to develop. When you write down a fact, add a footnote, preferably with a link. While you can always delete excessive footnotes at some point, it is a cardinal rule of research that, if there\u2019s a fact you neglect to document, that is the one<\/em> piece of information you\u2019ll want to double-check later. Again, I learned this the hard way. I keep a list of \u201cfacts sources\u201d at the end of short stories when I\u2019m working on them, for exactly that reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Knowing I would have time at the Library of Virginia, I copied and pasted the section of the Library Searches list into its own file and used it to query the library\u2019s online catalog. When I showed up in Richmond, I gave the librarian my list with the call numbers, and she knew exactly what I was looking for. This advance online catalog research identified a number of promising books I hadn\u2019t known about too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With this next thought, you may think we\u2019re wandering off into OCD territory, but I\u2019ve found that libraries with family history information tend to have some books and records organized by county\u2014early marriage records, will books, and the like. So I made a list of my ancestors who lived in each county and generally when. Again, this was something I could do in advance of my visit. And, when my bored husband turned up at the library to see whether I was ready to leave yet, I gave him that list, pointed him toward the county shelves, and he became an able research assistant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whatever systems work for you, they\u2019re an antidote to the stress of trying to remember stuff. Help yourself out. Find a way to stay at least somewhat organized!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My best tip for any kind of research is straight out of comedian Jonathan Winters\u2019s mouth in The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming! \u201cWe have GOT to get organized!\u201d Knowing my own tendencies in the opposite directions\u2014piles of … Continue reading