Making Sense of the Past

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Research Like a Pro Week 9: Copyright, Proof Arguments, and Publication

Genealogy Standard 62 is about integrity and ownership. It’s a reminder to respect copyright and ownership of other’s intellectual property. The Legal Genealogist, Judy Russell, writes about legal matters and updates on copyright law regularly in her blog. I’ve found her advice useful. I learned about two new resources for copyright: The BYU Copyright Decision Trail and the Fair Use Evaluation Log. For this project, I did not use any images that were covered by copyright. In the past I have had good luck by contacting the copyright holder and would not hesitate to do that again.

I am getting closer to a proof argument for separating the James Stokers, but there is at least one other proof needed – that linking James Stoker born in Kentucky to Edward Stoker, the Revolutionary War Veteran. I need to search land records, probate or local histories that would support parentage for either of the two younger James Stokers. 

This seems potentially publishable eventually. The confusion between the James Stokers is evident on WikiTree, FindAGrave, and Ancestry Trees.

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Research Like a Pro Week 8: Report Writing

I began writing during the research process and I’m glad I did since my schedule threw some curves at me this week. I am incredibly grateful that I took the time to do the citations when I was researching! My flow is not interrupted by that technical element of the process. 

I have a rough draft and will appreciate my classmates feedback. I’m relying on bulleted lists and tables to capture the information about the different James Stokers. I am focused on walking the reader through the evidence. I like the challenge of taking complex information and trying to make it understandable.

When I have difficulty writing, I find somewhere that intrigues me and start writing about that topic. I then go back to the parts where I had been stuck. I can re-write forever, so a deadline is helpful. My first drafts are generally too wordy and passive and subsequent drafts tighten that up. I’m finding that GoogleDocs supports me to outline documents. I am a huge fan of the header system in GoogleDocs.

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Research Like a Pro Week 6-7: Research Logs and Research Time

Any professional genealogist will tell you that one thing that distinguishes professional-level genealogy is the consistent and disciplined use of a research log. In the past I’ve used spreadsheets and was marginally successful. I used them sporadically but persisted in hunter/gatherer mode in my non-professional days. AirTable has been a game changer for me. I like databases and I am still learning all the ways AirTable can support organization and analysis of genealogical information, but I am an enthusiast. Filtering! Sorting! Linking between tables! There are so many features to support genealogical research.

For this project, I used the AirTable base (database) developed by Nicole Dyer for Research Like a Pro. It includes both documentary and genetic genealogy tables. This project does not include any genetic genealogy but those tables may come in handy some day. I’ve been using and adapting Nicole’s bases for a couple of years. Since I am disambiguating men of the same name, I need the information in one table to look at each man over time, so I have relied on the timeline table and some extra fields to test different ways to sort the men. Filtering and sorting allows me to visualize the information in a variety of ways.

I learned almost three years ago to create citations when I first look at a document and that has been a boon. Creating source citations can slow down the writing process. I still occasionally miss documenting every negative search and find myself going back and doing that. It’s important to keep track of the search terms, locations and time ranges to avoid rework.

Writing is next and I did start writing as I was logging the information I found, because writing helps me sort out my thoughts and create a more coherent narrative. The course provides two weeks for doing the planned research, which was welcome.

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Research Like a Pro Week 5: Research Planning

Here is the latest instalment in my series about the Research Like a Pro process. I’m serving as a Peer Group Leader for this study group.

Our assignment this week was to plan our research phase, including:

  1. Summary of known facts based on our timeline
  2. Background information about the locality based on our locality guide
  3. Working hypothesis
  4. Identified sources
  5. Prioritized research strategy

During research planning, I discovered that I had not included everything I knew in the timeline phase. Since the James Stokers were often confused, I knew more about Edward Stoker, the father of a James Stoker, so I returned to my timeline and added information about Edward Stoker.

Writing up these sections forces the researcher to consider how they know what they know and what is needed to answer the research question. I’ve noticed that documenting middle name origins is particularly problematic. They seem to appear out of nowhere in authored sources. In a same-name project, they could be useful if records over time demonstrate consistent use. 

Writing a working hypothesis creates a tension between confirmation bias and keeping an open mind. It’s more likely that researchers do have a bias, so writing the hypothesis is one way to get it in the open. Since hypotheses are meant to be disproven, writing is the safest step for the researcher and a good reason to have peer review of finished products.

Prioritizing is valuable because it avoids the distractions that genealogical research so often inspires! I am not always certain of which sources will most efficiently answer my question and appreciate thinking that step through.

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Research Like a Pro Week 4: Locality Research

A locality guide is an annotated list of records available for a particular region. It might be a state or a county. For this project, I chose to focus on Bourbon County, Kentucky, where my Stoker ancestor married in 1822 and where the other James Stokers also resided.

This part of the research process builds from the prior steps, particularly creating the timeline of known facts. Creating a locality guide guides the next phase (research planning) since record availability influences the research priorities. This phase of the process is a good reminder to research smarter and strategically. 

Locality guides are living documents, constantly being updated. A comprehensive locality guide is built over time, so I limited the time I spend on my locality guide to six hours. I also limited it to 1800-~1850 because that is the time period when the three James Stokers appear to have been simultaneously in Bourbon County. I also concentrated mostly on online sources.

I was grateful to discover there are tax books for all of the years I am interested in, wills are available online, and there may be newspapers available at the Kentucky Historical Society.  

I am using a GoogleDoc template provided through the course. I began using GoogleDocs a few years ago and also use GoogleSheets. I am growing to appreciate the formatting and accessibility of GoogleDocs.

Even though I am eager to start researching, the time spent on the locality guide will help me focus my research plan.