Designing your Genealogy Research: Determining the

Evidence!Fredericksburg, Virginia,

Family History Center-3/1/2014 Shelley Murphy

Overview

• Basic Genealogy Research• Genealogy Challenges• Murphy’s “So What” principle• Timeline…you just have to do one!• Developing the Research Plan

Basic Genealogy Research

• Begin with yourself or one of your parents• Know your records and resources• Write down your information-Document!• Who is your oldest living family member?-

Call them-Today • Oral History, Photos, and Sharing of

Information

If you are not organized

• you’ll become frustrated and quit, or duplicate research you’ve already done

Ref: Black Roots, Tony Burroughs pg.44

You will become successful in collecting pieces of paper.• If you do not have a system for filing,

saving, or retrieving.

What goes Out Must come IN

Whether you're writing to a cousin or to a county clerk three states away, tracking all of your pending information requests is crucial.

Keep copies of all the letters you send — they act as records of what you requested when,

Tell the family of your successes or failures…it will become a recording and you might get some help or new information.

Tips• When you are researching, Only search one

name/person/surname, if you see other names that you need to research further, make a note on a post-it, or add to the to do list- date it.

• REMEMBER to cite all the information so you can return to the right document.

• Stick to your to do list, have only one to do list-per person/file

• Do not try to analyze your information -take it home to read, sort, & make notes

More Tips

• Join and participate in a genealogical society, group…

• Attend genealogy training and conferences (keep a record of your attendance)

• Share your experiences• Ask for help & Set up sharing time

What you need to know about a person

• Full name and nicknames (why nicknames)• Where were they born, what county, city, state

date, where they born in a hospital?• What was going on in the area during the years

you are researching?• What were the parents, names, grandparents,

etc, where they born, type of work they did, siblings…

• Type of work, who are the neighbors, church affiliations

Primary vs. Secondary

Primary, a person witnessed the eventSecondary, did not witness the event

Why is it important to you?

Genealogy Challenges vs. Walls

• Records not recorded into public record• Records destroyed• Denial-don’t want to know, it’s the past• Don’t want to share the information• Received information that is not the truth or

reliable• You keep looking for people of color• Do you really have a wall/challenge?

Murphy’s “So What” principle

• Let’s look at a Death Record and see what information we will find…get into groups or partner with your neighbor and view the document-

• Ask questions and think of what you can do with the information you find. What can it do for you?

Timeline…you just have to do one!

• Why do you have to have one• Review the handout• Look for the gaps• Once you draft one-what do you have?

Developing the Research Plan

• Why do you need one?• Review the handout

What’s next?

• Good gosh, what did we just do???• Want to do it again?• Questions?

Thank you!

• Contact: keli1@aol.com• Find me on Facebook: Shelley Murphy, living

in Paris, France or on AAHGS Central VA Chapter

• Twitter: familytreegirl• Telephone: 434-806-7433• Fluvanna Library, Saturday-usually 3rd

Saturday