Tuesday, September 13, 2011

US Records Study Group: Assignment 1

As part of my goal of becoming a professional genealogist, I recently joined the US Records Study Group. The group was started by Tonia Kendrick and Valerie Elkins and will do an in-depth study of The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy and The Source. To keep myself on track and accountable to myself and the group, I will be doing my assignments here at Ancestrally Challenged.

Assignment 1-Rate organization and research evaluation skills. Set goals for improvement.

Well, there's good and there's bad. On the good side, I do generally cite my sources, keep what I've found organized, and take notes pretty much anyone should be able to decipher. On the bad side, I don't consistently use my research logs, don't write summaries of a research session so I can pick it back up later and rarely write reports so I can fully evaluate what I have found and what is missing.

My goals to improve my organization and research evaluation skills are
  • Use my research log every time I do research.
  • Write a summary of what I have already searched and ideas for future research after each research session.
  • Write a research report on one ancestor per week.

3 comments:

  1. Dee, I haven't written out my goal list yet, but mine are going to be very similar to yours.

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  2. I too have similar goals; mine are drafted and will be posted later today!

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  3. Dee I find that I have to have a set checklist to go down until I establish a new habit. I like your goals and need to do for myself what I do for my clients!

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