These were my “not New Year’s Resolutions” from 2015—but they are worth repeating.

I’m not big on resolutions so I won’t make them. Instead we’ll take a different approach to the new year.

Here are some research suggestions to remember in 2015:

• Use contemporary [to the problem] maps
• Cite sources
• Avoid using record transcriptions
• Determine a record’s likely informant
• Question the reliability of the likely informant
• Ask “how did this record get to me from its original location?”
• Question (respectfully) the conclusions of others
• List the assumptions that have been made
• Reorganize the information in a different way?
• Do other record sources have copies of the same record?