I spent eight years in doctoral study in history without knowing how to create a research plan. Oh, I planned, and I researched, but it was a nebulous process, without structure. When I went back to genealogy after the Ph.D. and discovered the wonderful tool called a “research plan” that genealogists were using to do really smart research, I wondered how much better my doctoral work might have been with that one tool.
I have written about this epiphany in my earlier blog, The Golden Egg Genealogist. I won’t reinvent the wheel here. I include below a repeat of the earlier post. It was designed for genealogists and answers a lineage question, as you will see, but I ask us all to read it today from the perspective of a genohistorian. Think about how you might apply this tool to the questions of time and place that serve our broader function at the middle ground between genealogy and history.
Research Plans: The “Show-Me” Stuff of Genealogy
From The Golden Egg Genealogist. Originally published September 23, 2018. https://genohistory.com/research-plans/
Are you ready to stand before your inquisitors when they demand to know why you challenge the “established” date of birth for an ancestor? Oh you have citations. Perfectly formed EE citations, even. But so do they. Can you prove yours are the right ones? Can you trace your analytical steps? Did you TAKE analytical steps? A research plan will get you there.
First things first
What is a research plan? In the field of genealogy, a research plan is a systematic method of answering a question, thoroughly documenting your findings and conclusions.
I’ll be the first to acknowledge that a formal research plan is unnecessary for many things we do in our genealogical research. When three credible sources in a row give your ancestor the same death date, and nothing surfaces to contradict it, you don’t need a research plan to prove the death date. Not yet, anyway. But what about the facts in dispute, those that are incomplete, and those that have been much-stated and never cited?
I had heard of research plans in genealogy classes along the way, but they seemed like a tool of the pros—something you use when you need to hand a report over to a client. The rest of us have a tendency to accept the conclusions handed to us by others, making the gray grayer, the mud muddier. And then others cite us as their source, unconcerned that we cited someone with no sources at all. Worse, on the way to answering the big, hard questions, we find ourselves distracted by other quick-and-easy questions. We lose focus. We put the hard stuff off until another day.
“Big Jim” Burson needs a research plan
I finally decided to give this tediousness called a “research plan” a try when I hit upon a knotty problem in my own family tree. It started with my 2016 blog post, “Parental relationship–the unproven link,” which warned of the dangers of failing to prove the parental connection before climbing your tree. One day, I realized I had a branch of my own tree that was hanging precariously on a completely unproven set of parents — those of my great-great-grandfather.
James C. Burson — or “Big Jim,” as he was known around Omaha, Alabama, in the early nineteenth century — led a reasonably well-documented life. At some point, I had attached to him parents named Isaac and Rebecca, but I had no source. I must have captured the names back in the 1980s when I was a genealogical kitten doing wildly speculative tree climbing. Not only did I fail to capture a source, I have found none since then that proves that Jacob, the son of Isaac and Rebecca was my Jacob. Just one person after another accepting the undocumented work of all the others.
I had committed my own publicly declared no-no: I extended a family branch on top of unproven, undocumented parentage. I had to fix it before I was busted.
Where could I start?
I started with a look at the censuses and found the problem so many of us have stumbled upon—a family that continually reused the same set of given names far and wide. My family used Isaac, Jacob, and James Burson over and over and over. Siblings naming their children the same—so cousins had to be called by numbers, I suppose. Then the numbered cousins did the same with their own children. So which of the myriad Bursons was Big Jim’s father?
This was not going to be easy. I was going to have to analyze household after household of Bursons. This required that I keep good track of what I’d done, so I would not have to do it twice. I am confident that other genealogists before me have tackled this same question, but they did not leave me the log to follow.
For the first time, I understood the real need for a research plan. Here is what it would bring me:
- A systematic approach to breaking down the question.
- A documentation of the possible answers and reasons for and against each one.
- An elegant way to tell everyone else why I consider the matter “proven.” The research plan becomes a key part of the proof documentation.
- Focus, and a sense of accomplishment all along the path — not just when I find the big answer at the end.
There are many templates for research plans available on the Internet, or you can create your own. Having been an editor for most of my career, I am fanatical about having documents that are beautiful as well as functional — so I created my own. (You can find my Research Plan template in my store, if you want a quick start into this adventure.) I combined all of the elements that made sense to me from the many variations I was finding, and created the format that worked best for me mentally and visually.
While we all have our preferred work methods, I find it makes the most sense to build your research plan dynamically as you work. As you find new things or rule out old things, you’ll want to adapt the plan as you go. Therefore, I discourage you from using a paper form you fill in with a pencil or — horrors — a pen. But if you’re determined to do it the old-fashioned way, you can create a form and allow large spaces to fill in your findings.
The elements of a research plan
Here are the essential elements I chose to incorporate:
Identifying/administrative information
Here, I give a title to the document that will distinguish it from the many other research plans I’ll likely do over the years. I identify the date I began working on it, recognizing that I might be working on a question for years to come. I keep up with the status: Not Started, In Progress, Completed. And I add a completion date, if I consider the question answered and closed.
Research question
The key to the research question is to keep it very specific. A broad question, by its nature, creates tangents and erodes focus. There might never be that satisfying moment you can say, “Done!” In my first research plan, the question was, “Who were the parents of James C. Burson (1837–1910)?”
Established facts and suppositions
You will want to start your journey by laying out what you already know and what you think you know and where you came upon this information. Not only does it lay the foundation for what you will build, it helps you to identify the holes in your current knowledge and the sources you have not yet mined.
Working hypothesis
It is helpful to mimic the scientific method at this stage and identify the answer you think likeliest — if there is one. This will allow you to create a focused strategy to prove or disprove the hypothesis. If you disprove it, you move to the next hypothesis.
Sources of potential value
Now that you have the question and the hypothesis identified, ask yourself where you might want to go for clues or answers. What is available that can inform your search? What is near, and what is far? As you lay out the potential sources, you will get ideas about what you should do first.
Actions steps
Identify each thing you plan to do to tackle your question. Put things in the most reasonable order, starting with the things most likely to get you answers. It’s possible you will not even need to do all of the steps, having arrived at your answer along the way. But identify them. Some of them you might be able to do quickly online, while you are waiting for something you had to order or a trip you have to take. Document your results of each step. This will be the trail you leave for yourself and others when they want to know why you have drawn the conclusion you have drawn.
Research determination
Identify your conclusion, in appropriate detail. If your research gave you more than you went after, identify it here, too. And if your conclusion is that the answer cannot be known, then write that conclusion.
Getting it to the world
Your work will be redone by others if you do not find a way to make it available. Leave a copy in your paper files? I have very little faith that paper genealogy files will be preserved by our descendants. Digital files? Maybe, but someone has to update them when technology changes. Best option? Put it online, so multiple genealogists are picking it up, and preserving it in their own ways. In family trees, cite carefully your now-proven fact. Attach the research plan as one of your evidences. And if you publish a family history, footnote that fact with great care — drawing on your research plan’s insights.
Creating a template
As you choose (or design) the ideal research plan format for yourself, make it easily accessible. You will encounter many research questions in need of this tool over the years ahead. I use Microsoft Word, and I have saved the Research Plan as a template. It’s easy to do.
- Open an empty version of your research plan, containing the headings and formats that guide you through it.
- From the menu, choose File–Save As,
- Choose to Browse for a location for the template, but don’t worry where you put it. Word knows where it wants it.
- Beneath the filename field, click the File-as-type drop-down list beneath the filename. Choose the Word Template type.
- You’ll notice that Word has now taken you to its “Custom Office Templates” folder. Type the name you want for your template, and click Save.
Now, you’re all set. Whenever you tell Word you’re ready to create a new document, it offers you available templates. If yours doesn’t show immediately, click the PERSONAL link to reveal your custom templates. Click on yours, and a fresh new copy of your research plan will appear.
You’ll be glad you did!
I actually get excited now, when I tackle the next question. I finally feel like I’m in control of the process. If I have to leave a research plan unfinished for months at a time (and I will), I can quickly recover my memory of the plan. I can hit the ground running, when the time presents itself.
If you’re not convinced yet, pick a question and give it a try. Find a research plan template, create one, or use mine. (I’m partial to mine, of course, so there is the link below.) This works!
[This is the end of the original article. Please read on for the “Call to Action” and “Zotero Notes” sections that accompany all Genohistory on Purpose blog posts.]
Call to Action
If you have a preferred Research Plan format already, please use the comments to tell us what you love about yours. Tell us what sort of problems you have solved, using a plan. And, as always, share this post with friends, your genealogical societies, and anyone else who will understand why this matters. Last, if you have not signed up for my Golden Channel Publishing mailing list, do that now, using the form below or a popup, if you see one. If it’s your first time to sign up, you will be sent a link to download a free Research Plan Template.
Storing Research Plans in Zotero
If your research plans are in a digital document, like Microsoft Word, you can either embed them in Zotero or link to where you have stored them on your computer. For example, the one above about Big Jim Burson is stored in Jim’s folder on my computer. In Jim’s folder in Zotero, I have created a link to the document. This allows me to continue working on the plan over time. When you double-click the link in Zotero, it opens the document in the software that is appropriate for it. Since research plans evolve and are updated over time, this lets you always have the latest version.
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