0
edits
Guessing the Easiest to Research Person and Event: Difference between revisions
Guessing the Easiest to Research Person and Event (view source)
Revision as of 01:38, 29 July 2008
, 29 July 2008no edit summary
(delete Family Trees) |
mNo edit summary |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
How to figure out which individual event on a family group record to document first. Start with the easiest. | How to figure out which individual event on a family group record to document first. Start with the easiest. | ||
''' | In order to document a family group record the best genealogists select '''one event''' in '''one person'''’s life on which to concentrate at a time. They work on that event until they document it, and/or exhaust '''all''' possibilities trying. They do not research another event until finished with the first. And when they start work on a new event, it is almost always on the '''same''' family group record. This strategy of finishing the documentation on the '''whole''' family before moving on is fundamental. It builds a collection of clues that can be compared and correlated to judge relevance and reliability of the documentation. It is also an important part of understanding the family and its members in their [[Research a Family in Community Context|community context]]. | ||
Start by guessing the event you believe will be the easiest to document.The easiest to document is usually the most recent event on the family group with a specific date, place, and source cited. The hardest to document is the earliest possible event not even mentioned on the family group and lacking a date, place, or source citation (all of which you will have to guess). | |||
==Documentation Hierarchy== | |||
To help judge easy-to-document versus difficult-to-document events on a [[Family group record: roadmap for researchers|family group record]], use the following four factors. The factors are listed in order from most important to least important. The list under each factor ranks better to worse options. | |||
== | ===1. Completeness of the dates, places, and sources for each event=== | ||
*Exact dates and places given with an exact source for each event | |||
*Exact dates and places given with a general source for many events | |||
*Exact dates and places given without an identified source | |||
*Partial or approximate dates or places given for an event | |||
*You must guess dates or places for an event | |||
* | *Several likely events are unmentioned and you must guess they even happened | ||
* | |||
* | |||
* | |||
* | |||
* | |||
=== '''''2. Availability of pertinent documents''''' === | === '''''2. Availability of pertinent documents''''' === | ||
| Line 32: | Line 28: | ||
*Few pertinent records are likely to exist <!--{12051943508240} --> | *Few pertinent records are likely to exist <!--{12051943508240} --> | ||
=== ''''' | === '''''3. More recent versus earlier events''''' === | ||
=== ''''' | === '''''4. Quality of available documents''''' === | ||
(See the ''original'' source with your ''own'' eyes wherever possible.) | (See the ''original'' source with your ''own'' eyes wherever possible.) | ||