Biographical research

15 February 2015 "Here's my challenge," a history researcher wrote recently on social media. "How do I write a biography of someone from the 1700s with little direct documentation available?

27 August 2014 Biographical research is always a gamble. Our person of interest may or may not have been literate. Among those who were, many created few records to document their existence. The records we expect to find for a place and time will likely have suffered some destruction.

10 February 2014 Biographical research is always a gamble. Our person of interest may not have been literate. Or, he belonged to one of the many classes of people who led quiet, impoverished, or otherwise low-profile lives. The records we expect to find for the time and place will likely have suffered some destruction. . . .