Clues from a Processioning List: Part Three

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 ...

Clues from a Processioning List

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: ...
Research Is a Spiral Process, Not a Straight Line
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. ...
EE Tue, 11/13/2018 - 20:17
Chasing Abstracts to the Originals
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. ...
EE Tue, 11/13/2018 - 19:17
You Be the Judge
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. ...
EE Tue, 11/13/2018 - 18:48