What is a Research Log and Why Should I Use One?
Every professional genealogist who conducts research on behalf of others should keep a detailed research log for every project. It holds them accountable to their clients for how they’ve used their time and it helps the researcher to stay organized and keep track of what they’ve done as they work.
But what if you’re not a professional? You don’t have strict deadlines or limits on your time, and you don’t have a client with a right to know exactly what you’ve done. So why should you keep a research log?
A thorough research log is not a requirement for the hobby genealogist. It’s not necessary to write down every single click when you sign into Ancestry just to clean up some leaf hints. But it can be an invaluable tool when you’re working on solving a complicated problem in your tree, or looking to break through a brick wall that you may research on and off for years. It can help you to stay on task, and can keep you from wasting time. There are few things more frustrating than coming back to a question with no idea of where you left off or where you got the information in your tree.
I’m sharing my personal research log template. This is what I use every time I do research with a specific objective. I’ve made tweaks and adjustments over the last few years and this form serves me very well. I start every new project with a blank copy of this template. Here’s how it can help:
This template contains the following fields
Ancestor: Who are you researching? This may be one specific individual, or a family.
Researcher: That’s you! Put your name here so that you can be identified and credited for your work if you share it with others.
Objectives: What are you trying to learn? What is your question(s)? Are you trying to extend the family line of a particular surname? Trying to determine when and where someone died? Hoping to identify a person’s parents? What’s the point of this research?
Date: When did you conduct this search? (Perhaps this one was self explanatory.)
Site or Location: Ancestry, FamilySearch, another website, the title of a book, your county courthouse, or wherever you did this specific search
Collection: What collection did you search, specifically, on that website or at that archive? List the title of the birth index, the obituary collection, the particular census you searched, etc.
Search criteria: What search terms did you use? You may want to search again later with a different spelling or a more specific date you’ve located. It will be helpful to know what you have and haven’t tried.
Findings/Notes/Analysis: What did the record say? Jot down at least the important details. Analysis includes what these raw facts actually tell you. This can include comparing the information to details found in other records, key things to remember, etc. For example, If you THINK John’s father was named Harrold, and a census record tells you that his oldest son is named Harrold, that’s indirect evidence of his father’s name. The younger Harrold may have been named for his grandfather.
Important note! Also include searches that didn’t turn up any results! (These are known as “NIL searches.”) This will help to prevent you from wasting time going over the same databases that don’t have relevant records over and over again. Additionally, many record collections are periodically updated with new records, as more records become available and as time passes, melting away privacy restrictions from more records. Your dated log of searches can show you whether or not you’ve searched a particular collection since its last update.
Citation: Cite your sources! (Your high school English teacher was right, this really is a useful life skill.) This is especially important if you plan to write a research report, paper, or other form of writing to explain your findings, or if you plan to present them anywhere outside of your family tree, like in a book about your ancestors or at a family reunion. If you create your citations here, while you’re doing the research, you've got all of the information readily available so your citations can be complete and accurate (which is king of the whole point), and you can just copy/paste them wherever you need them later!
The #1 authority on citing genealogical sources is Elizabeth Shown Mills, author of Evidence Explained. There are also options to build citations in programs like RootsMagic, Family Tree Maker, and Microsoft Word. Tools like Citation Machine can also be a good option.
Document Number: If you’re planning to write up your findings like I just mentioned, you will want to save and number each original document you find in order to make them easy to reference to your readers. (For example: Emma Johnson’s father was not listed on her original birth certificate [see Document 1].)
Links: To easily jump back to other records you’ve found to compare information, I find it helpful to have direct links to records in the research log.
Suggestions/Questions for further research: What have you discovered during this research that raises more questions, or needs further clarification? Where should you look for this information? This will act as a guide for your next research, or for when you pick up researching this family or person sometime in the future.
In the template, I’ve filled in each section with an explanation and/or example for you in red, so you can see even more of what I’m talking about.
As you use my template, you might want to make some adjustments, or make your own template entirely, and that is more than fine. You may realize there are additional things you’d like to include, or fields I’ve provided that you just don’t use much, or that you’d prefer to set up a bit differently. (You will likely want to add rows as your research exceeds the lines I’ve provided.) I hope this gives you a good starting point to help you stay organized. Feel free to reach out or set up a one-on-one session with me if you’ve got questions or want more personal help in applying this tool to your own research.