What is a Research Strategy?

What is a Research Strategy?

It’s essentially a plan.

Unfortunately, when doing our research, we often go off track when we don’t have a specific plan on what we want to find or research.

We jump online and look something up, and we get a little sidetracked; we’re not getting the answers to our initial questions.

Maybe we found new information on our subject, which grabbed our attention. It is exciting and fun, but it doesn’t answer the question we sought to get answers for. So having a research strategy will help us have more effective research and specific questions, thus planning our searches. For example, what records need to be found to get those answers? How can you find those records? Are you using particular databases or archives, searching in a specific way and/or with certain words? Etc.

Here is a little run down on what you should have in
your Research Strategy:

Who is the Ancestor we are focussing on? What questions do you have? (This could include more about their birth, or maybe their occupation, where and when they worked and who they worked for. Or maybe about the place they lived, what the town was like, the population etc. Look at what information you already have that will help you in this research.

Think about what sources to use, and then look at what names and words to search for.

If you follow a research strategy, your research should become more efficient, and you’ll spend less time researching things over again.

I remember this one time. When I was given this photo. My Grandfather didn’t know anything about them other than where they were from and that they were father and two sons, one of which was his Grandfather.

I decided that I wanted to know more about them, so because they were in England, I had to consider what sources to use, which helped me to know what databases, archives, and family history societies I would want to go to.

I wanted to focus on England. In particular, Sheffield

I started making a list of possible names and words to try searching for them.

Now the surname Smeaton, is often spelled Smeeton. You will find a fair few ways of spelling surnames; you will start to come across them in your research. Keeping track of these other names and any found mistranscriptions from indexes and databases can be beneficial.  

Try searching on those as well because you might find who you’re looking for under the miss spelt name rather than the one you know. Also, don’t forget nicknames. You didn’t always have to state your actual full name like you do today.

There are many different ways to describe a particular occupation or other things. For example, I’ve got handloom weaver, weaver, textile worker, and HLW, which was often used in the census. The census enumerator didn’t want to write out handloom weaver 30,000 times, so HLW made their life easier.

So, here’s my brief research plan.

I wanted to find basic information about the sibling of my GG Grandfather and, in particular, his birth and census details, and then the fathers.

I knew that Harry was born in 1873 in Sheffield, and I knew his brother’s and father’s name, which was helpful. But a fundamental question I had to answer was, were they born in the same place?

So I start with birth records in Sheffield around this time. Then, marriage certificates for his father so I can obtain a mother’s maiden name—Census records in and around this time and place. I also looked into his military records to see if a next of kin was listed; this could give many possible hints to finding more information.

Sticking to a Plan or Research Strategy helps keep you focused and on track to answering the questions you need answers to. Otherwise, we can find ourselves deep down a rabbit hole.

Check it all out here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppjSVN1G6zA

If you would like more tips on researching your ancestors, click below: