Our past two postings have focused on a critical skill for researchers: Taking research notes that do not simply “extract facts” but also allow us to study the context of those facts. Yesterday, we challenged you to study a research note detailing the 1755 processioning of lands in Augusta Parish, Augusta County, Virginia. Focusing on the long and boring list of names, we asked: What clues ...

This week's "Tuesday’s Test" presented a published version of a 1755 vestry minute from Augusta Parish, Virginia. The minute represented a list of lands processioned according to colonial law. That test presented two versions. ... EE asked which version you would create in your own research notes—and asked for the reason why. The point was this: ...

Let’s say that you are just beginning research in Augusta County, Virginia, which was organized in 1745. You are interested in James Frame. You find a record for him abstracted in a wonderful 3-volume set of published Augusta County resources. Which of the two following options best represent your notetaking practices—and why?

A friend of this page has a problem. It’s a common problem. An old history of Spanish East Florida has a tale that everyone accepts as fact. And so he poses a research question: "How can we prove that the wife of Hezekiah Humperdinckle was a Native woman, the daughter of the Creek chief Mad Dog?"

Is a database a source? Of course, of course! As researchers, we can use anything as a source. The issue is whether its information is reliable. Before we can reach a decision about the accuracy of any single source ...

An earlier posting about the research process has triggered a boatload of questions—and a bit of frustration. “I must not be doing something right,” sighed one friend of this page. ...

Yesterday’s QuickTest presented a page from a published source, with a helpful abstract of a document. We used the abstract to locate the original, then presented you with a typescript of the full document—inviting you to compare the two and tell us whether-and-why the effort was or was not worth it. ...

Here's an imaged page from a published work. The flagged paragraph provides an abstract of a document recorded in an eighteenth-century deed book. ...