I'm not saying we shouldn't leverage the various computer searchable indexes to hopefully easily find those key documents available online or even in archives, libraries, and museums. Also, making intelligent and thoughtful use of the hints provided by Ancestry, FamilySearch, Findmypast, and all those other genealogy related sites is a smart use of our valuable research time. But remember, those are only hints and quite often those hints won't apply to the person we are researching. So, don't blindly accept any hints provided. Yet, sooner or later, we will encounter a stumbling point — AKA brick wall — in learning about folks in our family tree such as not being able to locate them in the records. At that time, we need to stop searching and actually start researching.
By the way, I'm not talking about the kind of researching that one might do for a college or university course.
What I'm talking about when I say that "we need to start researching" is that we need to stop relying on the computer to do the work for us and for us to start understanding the records themselves. What I often call "Researching the research".
Some of the questions you might want to ask are:
- Where will we find the records?
- When were the records created?
- Why were the records created?
- How were the records created? Might there be two copies where one copy easier to access. Might one copy be missing some details?
- Are the records available for in-person consultation or have they been digitized and made available online?
- Are there privacy restrictions in place that we might have to overcome?
- Is the information we are seeking even get recorded in the records we want to use?
- Did the format and content of the records we are looking for change over time?
- Are there any "gotchas" in the records? Maybe some of the records haven't survived the ravages of time, they just weren't collected for specific years, or are there are early gaps in the records when folks just didn't follow the laws or rules.
- And the big question — do the records even exist?
Where can we find this information?
In all sorts of places and often never in a single place.
It could be as simple as an Internet search. Ignoring the sponsored ads that might pop up, the search results might point you to an archive or even a blog post about the subject. Personally, at least at this time, I don't trust those AI summaries provided by the various search engines or large language models, LLMs, like ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini, Grok, etc. I've found them to be, more often as not, wrong than right. But they have just enough "right" to look and feel correct — and that is the pitfall with them.
Check with the archive that holds the original records on paper or microfilm. Quite often there are research guides on those sites to help you better understand the records themselves. How do you find that archive? Again, an Internet search is often a good starting place.
Check your local library for books on the subject. You remember books, right?
Have there been talks given on the sorts of records you are looking for? Genealogy societies and other organizations such as Legacy Family Tree Webinars might have recordings available for your viewing pleasure. Just keep in mind that you will probably need to be a member to view those recordings.Even social media sites like Facebook can be helpful. You will often find folks willing to share their knowledge in those groups. Kind folks might even be willing to help you search for the answers to your research question. But before you ask a question on those sites, take the time to review the previously posted messages to see if someone has already asked or answered the question about the records you are seeking.
But most importantly, be curious! In your journey to better understand the records you will also hopefully become a better family history and genealogy researcher.