{"id":2447,"date":"2016-04-03T03:48:18","date_gmt":"2016-04-03T03:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/?p=2447"},"modified":"2016-04-03T03:48:18","modified_gmt":"2016-04-03T03:48:18","slug":"you-say-and-i-wonder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/?p=2447","title":{"rendered":"You Say and I Wonder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[note: An earlier version of this appeared in the former\u00a0<em>Ancestry.com<\/em>\u00a0<em>Daily News,\u00a0<\/em>which unfortunately I cannot find archived anywhere easily]<\/p>\n<p><strong>You Say: &#8220;I Found a New Document Today.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And I wonder:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Have you entered the information into your genealogy database?<\/li>\n<li>Have you completely analyzed the document?<\/li>\n<li>Have you thought about what other records the document suggests you research?<\/li>\n<li>Have you filed the document so you can find it?<\/li>\n<li>Have you adequately cited the document so someone else can find the original?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>You Say: &#8220;I Have a Document I Don&#8217;t Understand.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And I wonder:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Have you read the document out loud?<\/li>\n<li>Have you typed the document?<\/li>\n<li>Have you asked someone else to look at the document?<\/li>\n<li>Have you read the entire document?<\/li>\n<li>Have you read the document backward?<\/li>\n<li>Have you looked up words you do not understand?<\/li>\n<li>Do you have the entire document?<\/li>\n<li>Do you have an incomplete transcription or abstract?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>You Say: &#8220;I Can&#8217;t Find Where My Ancestor Came From.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And I wonder:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Have you looked at the entire family?<\/li>\n<li>Have you looked for unknown family members?<\/li>\n<li>Have you analyzed the neighbors?<\/li>\n<li>Have you read local histories?<\/li>\n<li>Have you read regional histories?<\/li>\n<li>Have you considered geography?<\/li>\n<li>Have you considered economics?<\/li>\n<li>Have you considered migration trails?<\/li>\n<li>Have you considered chain migration?<\/li>\n<li>Have you considered boundary changes?<\/li>\n<li>Have you traced the person&#8217;s life as far as you can?<\/li>\n<li>Have you started with the most recent events and worked backward?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>You Say: &#8220;I&#8217;m Stuck.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And I wonder:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Have you interviewed all the relatives?<\/li>\n<li>Have you interviewed former family neighbors?<\/li>\n<li>Have you identified all the family pictures?<\/li>\n<li>Have you considered all the spellings?<\/li>\n<li>Have you considered all the pronunciations?<\/li>\n<li>Have you taken a break and worked on another line or family?<\/li>\n<li>Have you written up what you already have?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Have you checked vital records?<\/li>\n<li>Have you checked land records?<\/li>\n<li>Have you checked court records?<\/li>\n<li>Have you checked probate records?<\/li>\n<li>Have you checked local records?<\/li>\n<li>Have you checked state records?<\/li>\n<li>Have you checked federal records?<\/li>\n<li>Have you checked church records?<\/li>\n<li>Have you checked occupational records?<\/li>\n<li>Have you checked ethnic organizations?<\/li>\n<li>Have you checked fraternal organizations?<\/li>\n<li>Have you researched every organization to which your ancestor belonged (church, fraternal, ethnic, military, etc.)?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Have you checked your assumptions?<\/li>\n<li>Are you researching from the present to the past?<\/li>\n<li>Have you organized your information?<\/li>\n<li>Have you double-checked research you did when you were new to genealogy?<\/li>\n<li>Have you put queries on appropriate bulletin boards?<\/li>\n<li>Have you posted your question to appropriate listserves?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>You Say: &#8220;I Don&#8217;t Understand This Topic.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And I wonder:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Have you attended a relevant workshop or seminar?<\/li>\n<li>Have you read an article or book on the subject?<\/li>\n<li>Have you listened to a conference tape?<\/li>\n<li>Have you read an appropriate reference work?<\/li>\n<li>Have you subscribed to an appropriate listserv?<\/li>\n<li>Have you looked for articles on the Internet?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>You Say: &#8220;I Got It Off the Internet.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And I wonder:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Have you contacted the compiler?<\/li>\n<li>Have you located the original source?<\/li>\n<li>Have you located records the online source suggests?<\/li>\n<li>Have you considered that the online source might be incorrect?<\/li>\n<li>Have you considered using offline sources as well?<\/li>\n<li>Are you using the Internet source as a clue?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>You Say: &#8220;I Can&#8217;t Find It in the Index.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And I wonder:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Have you made certain you know how the index is compiled?<\/li>\n<li>Have you read the compiler&#8217;s introduction (it might list record problems)?<\/li>\n<li>Have you considered typographical errors?<\/li>\n<li>Have you considered transcription errors?<\/li>\n<li>Have you considered searching the records themselves?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[note: An earlier version of this appeared in the former\u00a0Ancestry.com\u00a0Daily News,\u00a0which unfortunately I cannot find archived anywhere easily] You Say: &#8220;I Found a New Document Today.&#8221; And I wonder: Have you entered the information into your genealogy database? Have you completely analyzed the document? Have you thought about what other records the document suggests you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}