writing a genealogy research report

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How to Write a Genealogy Research Report

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Inside every genealogist is a hidden (or a not-so-hidden) detective. We all love the thrill of the hunt and the challenge of a mysterious kinship. We hone our search skills, learn about records, and ponder the evidence. Yet there’s another aspect of detective work that we often brush aside—writing reports about our research.

Research reports are powerful investigative tools. In criminal cases, detectives use them to summarize, analyze and communicate findings. They can do the same for family history research. Professionals create them for clients, but most experienced genealogists also write reports on their family research, purely for their own files. Why? Because reports help them build on their discoveries to solve problems of identity and relationship.

And no matter where you are in your family history search, creating a report can help you, too. I’m confident that once you see how beneficial research reports are and how simple they can be to construct, you’ll be convinced they’re well worth your time.

The Benefits of Writing a Genealogy Research Report

It may seem counterproductive to use your limited research time writing about the work you’ve already done instead of searching for new records. But you’ll reap benefits that save you time in the long run. A research report chronicles the work you’ve done toward answering a particular question about your family history, identifying:

• the focus of your research problem
• the information with which you started
• the resources you used
• your research discoveries
• your thoughts and analysis
• your summary or conclusion
• your ideas for future research

Because your report shows what you looked for and found (or didn’t find), you won’t end up repeating searches. This is especially helpful if you’re juggling multiple projects or only have short intervals to work on genealogy. If you need to put your research efforts on pause for a while, the report makes it possible to come back and pick up where you left off without missing a beat.

The process of writing also clarifies your thinking. Because extracting the information from a document and analyzing it in writing forces you to slow down and think it over, you’re more likely to notice small but meaningful details, and put them together with details found in other documents. This aids you in determining what the evidence means. It also makes it easier to compare and correlate different pieces of information—a vital part of solving any problem.

If you’ve been working on an ancestor for some time, writing a report can help you gather your evidence discovered over time, and see where gaps might exist in your research. It’s a great way to brainstorm ideas for a new research plan, which you can even begin to develop right there in the report. A summary like this is also helpful if you want to ask a professional or a genealogical society for assistance. The person will be able to see what you’ve already done, so he or she can get up to speed on your query more quickly and won’t need to duplicate your previous work.

Similarly, if you’re starting on a new line or if friends or relatives have asked for your help with their family history, it’s a good idea to create a report at the outset and add to it as you go along. When you’ve finished, you can turn the report with documents you’ve found over to them, knowing your work won’t be lost or misunderstood.

Many genealogists also write reports on special research trips, such as to the Family History Library  in Salt Lake City or to an area where ancestors lived. Such reports might be started before the trip, fleshed out during it, and polished up afterward at home. These trips often represent a big investment in time and money, and the records may not be available anywhere else. So it’s wise practice to keep track of the results and analyze them fully.

Who, then, can benefit from writing a research report? In short, anyone who:

• is working on a problem of ancestor identity or kinship
• needs to pause and resume research at a later time
• is trying to summarize previous work and generate new ideas
• is planning a trip to a repository or ancestral locality
• is looking for help from someone else
• is offering help to someone else

As you can see, that covers a wide range of territory. Fortunately, you can easily adapt reports to fit your own situation and needs. They don’t need to be fancy or complex to be useful. As a genealogy professional, I’ve written dozens of reports, and I’ve learned some keys to effective yet easy reporting to share with you.

Embrace a Write-As-You-Go Approach

In school, many of us learned to write reports after we’d finished reading the books and doing the research. For me, at least, that wasn’t much fun. Who wants to labor over a report after all the interesting work of discovery and synthesis is done? That’s why I’m among the many genealogists who’ve embraced a write-as-you-go approach.

Writing as you go simply means setting up the framework for your report when you first begin a new project or phase of work, and then filling in your results as you find them.  Setting the report up when the question is fresh—before you undertake any new research or know the outcome—allows it to grow organically as your understanding of the evidence grows. You’ll find it flows more naturally and can actually help guide your research efforts.

It’s a good idea to create a short sample report in your word processing software to use as a template. That way, you don’t need to start from scratch each time you begin a new one. Even though the topic and resources will vary, the basic sections will be structured more or less the same. The following six steps will guide you in crafting a versatile report.

Six Steps to Writing Your Research Report

1. identify your focus..

Whether the report is for your own research or someone else’s, the first step is to note your name, the date, and what the subject is. To begin, open a blank document and type in the following lines:

• Prepared by: (your name and contact information)
• Prepared for: (“My Research Files,” or the name of relative or fellow researcher)
• Date finished: (leave blank for now)
• Research question or goal

For the title, choose something more specific than, say, “Baker Family Research.” A title like “Searching for the Parents of Isaac Baker” might better reflect the true focus of the report. For a report following a research trip, try something like “Researching Bakers in Berkshire County Records at the Family History Library.”

Similarly, give some thought to your research question or goal. This is a short statement—typically just one or two sentences—but it sets the framework for your entire project. The research question has two important components: First, it needs to identify precisely the person or couple at the center of your research. This involves not only naming the person, but also placing him or her in a particular place during a particular time period. Second, it needs to explain what you hope to investigate and learn during the course of your research.

Stating a research question or goal isn’t as hard as it might sound, because the two components fit together seamlessly to express your objective. Questions and statements like these might strike you as lengthy at first, but you’ll soon get the hang of writing them. Some examples of a research question or goal include:

• Who were the parents of Isaac Baker, 1840 resident of Pittsfield, Berkshire County, Mass.?
• Was Catherine Anderson, who married Thomas Smith on 20 April 1859 in Cass County, Mo., the daughter of Cass County resident William Anderson?
• This project will explore sources of information at the Family History Library about Baker families living in Berkshire County, Mass., about 1800-1860.

2. Show what you know.

Now that you’ve defined your research objective in specific terms, offer a brief recap of what you already know about the subject. This section might be called “Starting Point,” “Background Information,” or “Summary of Previous Research.” Choose whichever term you prefer and enter it into your template.

Try to sum up what led you to this point in a couple of paragraphs. It isn’t necessary to write a full biography of the person’s life. Rather, think of it as a synopsis of information you’ve gathered pertaining to the research question. If you’ve developed a theory based on that information, now’s the time to explain what you think and why.

Indicate where the information came from, too. Have you been reading your great-aunt’s handwritten pedigree, a set of census records, an obituary clipping, an online family tree, or some combination of the above? Knowing the sources you started with will be important in judging the information’s reliability as you accumulate more evidence.

If you’ve done a lot of previous work, it could be helpful to attach a chart or timeline here for quick reference. In most cases, though, a few short paragraphs outlining the key players in the person’s life (spouses, children, siblings or parents, if known), pertinent dates and places, and clues you hope to build on will be enough to launch you forward.

3. List your resources.

Set up a section of your report near the beginning to serve as a master list of “Resources Used.” That way, you’ll be able to see the websites you searched, the libraries or archives you visited and/or the people you contacted at a glance. You’ll still want to write citations for each new document you find, but this list will help you write them and save you from digging through your footnotes if you forget whether you looked at a certain website.

To save time, create a list of frequently used resources in your report template, which you can add to or subtract from as needed. I divide mine into three parts: online sources, repositories visited and correspondence. For online sources, I list websites I commonly use with their home URLs, such as Ancestry.com and Family­Search . For repositories visited, I list places I frequently research, including my local library and my state archive. Modify these lists for each report as you go along, deleting sources you didn’t use and inserting additional ones you did. The correspondence section stays blank until I get into a project. Then I add people or archives with whom I spoke on the phone or exchanged emails or letters.

If you have any limitations on your project, indicate them here as well. Perhaps you’re limited to five hours of work, or you’re focused solely on records created in Iowa, or you’re using online resources only. It may be important to know what those limiting factors were in the future, especially if you’re sharing your report with others.

4. Report your findings.

This section, typically called “Research Findings” or “Research Notes,” will comprise the body of your research report. It’s where you’ll record the nitty-gritty details of the information found in the sources you looked at, complete with source citations. It’s also the place where you’ll analyze and begin to compare the evidence. Every source in your Research Findings should receive a three-part treatment:

• Abstract or transcribe information from the record
• Write a source citation as a footnote or endnote
• Analyze what the record tells you or suggests

Since you’ll probably be looking at a number of sources, you’ll want to organize or group them in some way. Grouping by type of record—such as census records, marriage records, probate records, newspaper records, etc.—is a common and natural way to structure your research findings. If you’re gathering records from different localities, like deeds from three different counties, you could organize by locality instead. In some cases, grouping by time period or by person might make the most sense. Choose the type of grouping that works well for your particular project.

For example, let’s say you want to organize by record types. Create a heading for, say, “Census Records.” If your first record is the 1860 US census, make a subheading for that. With the digitized image of the census in front of you, write down all the information it contains. You might use bullet points to create a list of household members, in the order in which they appear, with age, sex, occupation and so forth for each one. This is the process of abstracting the record—recounting the information faithfully in shortened form.

Some records, such as a minister’s return of a marriage, lend themselves better to transcribing—copying the entire record word-for-word, exactly as it appears. Transcriptions should appear with quotation marks around them. Your report will likely contain a mixture of abstracts and transcriptions.

Once you’ve captured what the record says, note where it came from. All word processing programs allow you to create footnotes and endnotes, which are ideal for source citations. Many people prefer footnotes, as this keeps the information and citation together on the same page, but endnotes are also fine. If you don’t know how to create footnotes in your software, you could put your citations in parentheses or brackets following the abstracted information.

Now, think about what this information means. What’s significant about it? Does it answer a question, or suggest a direction to explore? Does it raise additional questions? In a separate paragraph labeled “Analysis” or “Comments,” offer your thoughts and observations. Allow yourself time to reflect on the information and how it relates to other evidence you’ve collected. Does it agree or disagree with other findings?

This analysis is truly the heart of your report. As you proceed with your research, patterns, similarities and/or discrepancies may start to appear. Consider these carefully and think about why. Through this process, analysis leads into correlation. In his landmark book, Mastering Genealogical Proof (National Genealogical Society), board-certified genealogist Thomas W. Jones defines correlation as “a process of comparing and contrasting genealogical information and evidence to reveal conflicts, parallels and patterns.” In most cases, this is how you’ll reach your research objective.

One last note: in addition to recording the sources you found, it’s also important to note when your searches came up empty. If you expected to find a marriage record for your ancestors in Boone County, Ky., but didn’t find one, indicate exactly what online database(s), microfilm, published record books or other resources you consulted. Keeping track of these negative results helps you avoid repeating work, and can spur you to expand your search to other localities.

5. Sum it up.

Once you’ve finished all the research, read over and polish your report. Edit it for grammar, style and clarity. Then, while it’s fresh in your mind, write a “Summary of Results” or “Conclusion” section to summarize what you discovered. Have you answered your research question? What can you infer or conclude in light of the evidence you found?

Since you’ve been analyzing the evidence all along, this summary should be relatively simple to write. It’ll draw from and expand on the analysis and correlation you’ve already done. Nonetheless, you may find the process of synthesizing everything together sparks more ideas and connections. That’s one of the reasons you’re taking the time to write a report in the first place.

Your summary might also expose conflicts between pieces of evidence. Can you explain or resolve those conflicts? If so, this is the place to say how. If not, you may simply need to acknowledge that the evidence disagrees, and that more work is needed in order to resolve the matter.

6. Plan for the future.

In the final section of your report, “Recommendations,” list any additional resources you’d like to look at in the future. These will be based on ideas that came to mind while you were researching or evaluating the evidence. Recommendations for future research might include:

• other records to explore, such as military or land records
• visiting a certain archives or repository
• digging into records of another city, county or state
• newly discovered relatives or associates to investigate

It’s a good idea to add things to this list as they occur to you during the writing and proofreading process, and then finalize it at the end. Think about where you’d like to go from here. Your list of recommendations can serve as a ready-made research plan for your next round of family history discoveries.

At last it’s time to sit back, relax and look with pride at the report you created. With any luck, you’ve met your research objective, or at least made strides in the right direction. It’s always a good idea to make a backup copy. Save your report, along with any records it refers to, on a cloud-based server, such as Evernote , Google Drive or Dropbox (a “List of Attached Records” makes a handy index to include in the report). This ensures you’ll be able to access the documents anytime and anywhere. Cloud storage also makes it easy to share your findings, simply by inviting others to view the file.

Investigative reporters know that focusing attention on a problem in writing is one of the best ways to spur action and generate solutions. Many genealogical problems can benefit from the same treatment. So next time you’re faced with an ancestral mystery, take the time to start a report for yourself. You may find the answer is right there in black and white.

A version of this article appeared in the September 2016 issue of Family Tree Magazine .

Shelley K. Bishop

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Remember me?

Doing a Genealogy Research Project from Start to Finish

Have you ever completed a genealogy research project from the beginning to end? From objective to report? I just completed one and I want to share what I learned.

I did the project for our Research Like a Pro study group. I wasn’t planning to join the group at first – I thought I would just help in the background with whatever Diana needed. She developed the idea for the study group and was finishing up her planning. At the last minute, she encouraged me to join. I knew that having assignments and peer review would provide accountability. I do well when I have accountability – it’s highly motivational for me, so I agreed to join.

The first assignment in the study group was to choose an objective and write it down. So, I started a document for the research project and wrote my objective at the top.

If you want to see an idea for a research project document, Diana has created a template for the next Research Like a Pro Study Group that you can download below. Included are sections for the basic elements of a genealogy research project: objective, summary of known facts, background information, working hypothesis, identified sources to search using a locality guide, prioritized research strategy, findings and analysis, conclusion, suggestions for future research, and results summary. Here is the template:

Research Project Template (google docs file)

When viewing the google docs template, click “file” then “make a copy” to save the template to your own google drive and begin typing into it.

Research Project Template (free download docx file)

Would you like to find more templates and research tips like this? This template and others are available in our book, Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist’s Guide.   We hope you’ll try it out!

Objective and Analysis

I chose a research objective that coincided with the research I was already doing on my Confederate soldier ancestors for my RootsTech presentation. My objective was not the typical “prove a relationship” objective, but instead focused on discovering the actions of my relatives during the Civil War. Here’s the objective I wrote at the start of the project:

Discover the actions of three brothers, sons of John D. Isenhour and Sarah Bailey, in the antebellum period and during the Civil War:

– Valentine Isenhour, born 1820 in North Carolina and died 23 Apr 1895 in Clyde, Callahan, Texas.

– Moses William Isenhour, Confederate soldier, born 1823 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, died 16 February 1862 in Fort Thompson, United States, married to Amanda Martha McKinney 1 October 1846 in Montgomery, Arkansas.

– Josiah Edmond Isenhour, born 1825 in Missouri and died 13 December 1868 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

After creating my objective, I analyzed the information I already had and made a timeline showing important dates. I evaluated each record to decide how credible it was. I asked, “Is it an original or derivative record?   Or an authored work?” and “Is this primary, secondary, or undetermined information?” and “Does the information provide direct or indirect evidence?”

It was helpful to review each other’s work as we practiced this step. Others’ comments shed light onto records that I hadn’t thought of in that way before. I had to decide whether I thought a newspaper obituary was original, derivative, or authored. That was a tricky question. I ultimately decided that it was an original record but that the information was undetermined – whether or not it was primary or secondary, since the author was unknown. Others say an obituary is an authored narrative. (What do you think? Here’s the discussion on Evidence Explained  )

I made notes in my research project document as I analyzed the records I already had, with questions and ideas for research.

One thing I learned throughout this process is that creating too broad of an objective makes the project harder to organize. If I could go back to the objective assignment, I would only select one individual at a time. I also learned the value of the three different types of genealogy research questions / objectives : identify an individual, prove a relationship, and discover actions.

Before researching a person’s actions, you must first identify them! When I discovered a second Civil War Service Record for Moses Isenhour in a different location, I wondered if I had I wasted time researching the wrong person. That’s when I went back and made sure to identify Moses of Arkansas and Moses of Texas as distinct individuals.

I found that Moses of Arkansas’ family moved to Texas right around the time of the Civil War. That’s when I found a separate Confederate Service Record for a man with the same name (Moses Isenhower) in Texas. My Moses Isenhour had a Compiled Military Service record for a regiment in Arkansas. As I continued to research, I was able to identify the Texas man as a different Moses than mine through tracing his family in census and cemetery records. That brought me back to my original hypothesis: my relative was Moses Isenhour of Arkansas.

Now I was ready to continue researching Moses of Arkansas’ actions, having identified him as my relative.

Locality Guide

The next assignment was to learn about the state or county where I would be researching and create a guide to genealogy research in that place. When were the records created in that county? What repositories exist there? What is the geography like? What county histories are available? I added lots of links to my locality guide document. Instead of copying and pasting a lot of text, I just linked to articles that had historical background and websites that had county boundary changes, and so on. I realized that there are hundreds of resources online with helpful information.

As I learned about all the records available in my location, questions and ideas for what to research came to mind. I made notes of this in my Research Project document.

Research Planning

For the research planning assignment, I organized my notes and ideas into a prioritized plan and wrote a hypothesis for what I thought the records would show. I realized that I need to take some steps to identify each individual a little further with census, land, and tax records before I could research their military service with confidence that I had the right person. I put that as top priority in my plan, then listed the collections I wanted to search in Fold3 and Ancestry military records. I also ordered the regimental history for Moses Isenhour’s unit.

Research, Research Log, Citations

Before I started, I knew that Moses Isenhour was likely a Confederate soldier. I just needed to review the evidence and make sure I had the right person. I followed all three men in land, census, and tax records. Once I had this part down, I moved on to the fun part – researching their actions during the Civil War.

My favorite part of the project was using the details I found in the records to flesh out the historical scene that they were living through. It was fascinating to learn about the day to day happenings of Moses’ regiment, the 11th Arkansas Infantry.  The entire regiment was captured at the Battle of Island Number 10, but Moses died before his unit saw battle. The regimental history revealed that the winter was harsh, muddy, and full of illness. Moses died during this bleak winter while taking his turn at rotating through picket duty night and day.

Diana taught us to make citations as we went along so we wouldn’t have to return to our source. I learned my lesson after doing some searches and not creating the citation. It was a pain to go back to the URL that I had saved and try to remember the details that should go in the citation.

I learned a lot about citations this time by reading Diana’s lesson about citations and Elizabeth Shown Mill’s book and website,  Evidence Explained.  I spent a lot of time studying the first two chapters of the book. Once I got the basics of the citation down, it became a lot easier to create subsequent citations. One of the group members shared a fabulous resource from the BYU Family History Department that I want to share with you – Templates for Citations.  These templates are based on the citation style in Elizabeth Shown Mills’  Evidence Explained.

Next time, I will create separate research logs and reports for each person. It was not fun searching through my research log for the entries about Moses and then the entries about Valentine. I know this will depend on the objective and the project, but I  don’t think doing one single log for all three of these men was helpful in this instance.

Writing Conclusions

Writing about my discoveries, connections, thoughts, and the conclusions I came to during the research phase is an important step that I often skip. I want to be better about this. Whether it’s in the notes section of a software program or in a more formal document, written conclusions are extremely valuable. I discovered it was not enough to just keep my notes in a research log. A research log is not cohesive and does not have enough space to truly analyze and discuss your hypothesis.

Since I have to spread out my work with several days in between work sessions, I need to be able to quickly glance at a project and remember where I left off.  Waiting to write up my research until the end of my project meant that I forgot some of the conclusions that I came to while I was researching, even though I did keep detailed notes in that section of my log. It was best to write my findings in the report as I went along researching.

I found that the most helpful section of the report was the “future research suggestions” section. This section allowed me to list new ideas for research as I wrote without getting off track. I could finish my analysis of a record knowing that my idea was saved in “future research.”

My report isn’t perfect, but if you’re interested in reading it, here it is:

Isenhour Brothers Confederate Service Research Report

I created separate documents for my evidence analysis, research plan, and log.

Overall Lesson Learned

Besides learning several new skills, I learned overall that the simpler the objective, the more manageable the project. There’s no reason to create an objective and research plan for a 50 hour project all at once. In the future, I will create smaller plans that will yield a 10-20 hour project. If I don’t solve the problem or answer the question in that time, I can use my ‘future research suggestions’ to go forward and create a new plan for my next research session. I may decide to keep adding to my report or write up an entirely new one for each session. I feel that doing research in manageable chunks of time, coupled with writing my conclusions will increase my efficiency twofold!

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About Nicole Elder Dyer

Nicole Dyer is a professional genealogist specializing in Southern United States research and genetic genealogy. She is the creator of FamilyLocket.com and the Research Like a Pro Genealogy Podcast. She co-authored Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist's Guide and Research Like a Pro with DNA and is an instructor for the study groups of the same name. She lectures at conferences and institutes and previously served as the secretary and publicity chair of the Pima County Genealogy Society. Nicole holds a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University in History Teaching. At Family Locket Genealogists, Nicole is a project manager, editor, and researcher.

14 Comments

Leave your reply..

Well done, Nicole! This is definitely good prep work for Accreditation. I like that you included a map and timeline in your report. Thanks for sharing your study group experience.

Thanks for reading and commenting! Yes I learned so much for the accreditation process.

I really appreciate you putting your work out there so I could read it and compare it to my style of work. Good Job! I’m working on my 4 generation project as well. Your blog is a welcome diversion.

Thanks Tami. I know it wasn’t perfect but I do think it’s important to share our work!

Inspired me to start a project — one project and finish it, learning citation form along the way. Query, how do you document your research time?

Great idea! I use a Google spreadsheet to track the time I spend researching. I would recommend Elizabeth Shown Mills’ book Evidence Explained and her website of the same name while you’re learning citation. That’s what I use!

Wealth of information in your report. It was interesting reading. I can see why writing summaries in your log frequently as you go is a must. Loved the maps.

Thank you for sharing your report. I am a visual learner and seeing the report truly helped me,

You’re welcome! As I have been learning how to write reports in the last couple years, seeing examples of other reports has helped me more than anything else. Glad it helped you also!

This is really helpful. Your comment about creating the smaller objectives for 10-20 hour projects really made this concrete for me. I’m much more comfortable with my simplified objective now. Thank you for a thorough write-up!

Nicole, this is a great quote and good words to research by “I learned overall that the simpler the objective, the more manageable the project.”

Lots of great information in this post! I’ve copied the link an added it to a Research Guide I created, which follows along the lines of the Locality Guide. A document with links to useful information.

Thanks Nicole!

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Diana Elder, AG®, and Nicole Dyer We are mother & daughter professional genealogists sharing ideas for finding ancestors and keeping them close to the heart. Read more about us and our research team here.   Thanks for visiting!

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Laura Murphy DeGrazia, "Planning Effective Research," OnBoard 21 (September 2015): 17–18, 23.

Harold Henderson, "Anatomy of a Failure: What I Learned from My First Portfolio,"  OnBoard 21 (May 2015): 13.

Judy G. Russell, "The Ethics of DNA Testing," OnBoard 21 (January 2015): 1–2, 7.

Judy G. Russell, "DNA and the Reasonably Exhaustive Search," OnBoard 20 (January 2014): 1–2.

Stefani Evans, "Evidence Correlation," OnBoard 18 (September 2012): 21–23.

Stefani Evans, "Data Analysis," OnBoard 18 (May 2012): 13–14.

Thomas W. Jones, "Perils of Source Snobbery," OnBoard  18 (May 2012): 9–10, 15.

Michael S. Ramage, "A Primer on the Use of BCG Trademarks,"   OnBoard (May 2011): 9–10.

Thomas W. Jones, "Focused Versus Diffuse Research,"   OnBoard  17  (September 2011): 17–18.

Pamela Boyer Sayre, "Effective Writing and Editing,"   OnBoard  16 (September 2010): 21–22.

Thomas W. Jones, "The Genealogical Proof Standard: How Simple Can it Be?" OnBoard 16 (September 2010): 17–18, 20.

Barbara Vines Little, "It's Not That Hard to Write Proof Arguments," OnBoard 15 (September 2009): 20–23.

Laura Murphy DeGrazia, "Proof Arguments," OnBoard 15 (January 2009): 1–3.

Ann Carter Fleming, "Overlooked Resources: Business, Organizational, and Institutional Records," OnBoard 13 (September 2007): 22–23.

Patricia O'Brien Shawker, "Passport Applications: A Rich Genealogical Resource," OnBoard 13 (May 2007): 13, 15.

Barbara Vines Little, "Tax Lists: A Goldmine of Information," OnBoard 12 (September 2006): 17–18.

Charles S. Mason, Jr. "Before Death Certificates: Furniture Dealers and Cabinetmakers as Death Sources," OnBoard 12 (May 2006): 14–15.

Barbara J. Mathews, "Structural Elements of a Good Genealogy," OnBoard 12 (January 2006): 1–2.

Kay Haviland Freilich, "Background Information: An Overlooked Research Tool," OnBoard 11 (September 2005): 17–18.

Sandra MacLean Clunies, "Evaluating Web Resources," OnBoard 10 (May 2004): 12–13.

Amy Larner Giroux, "Date Calculations," OnBoard 9 (May 2003): 12–13.                        Note: for a more technical treatment, see Barbara Levergood, “Calculating and Using Dates and Date Ranges,” NGSQ 102 (March 2014): 51–75.

Linda Woodward Geiger, "Using the Compilations of Others,"   OnBoard  7 (September 2001): 20–21.

Helen F. M. Leary, "Converting Records into Reliable Copies," OnBoard   5 (May 1999): 20.

Kay Haviland Freilich, "Polishing Our Everyday Writing," OnBoard   4 (September 1998): 24.

Elizabeth Shown Mills, "Good Genealogical Writing," OnBoard   4 (May 1998): 16.

Elizabeth Shown Mills, "Censuses—Often-Overlooked Basics," OnBoard   4 (January 1998): 8.

Helen F. M. Leary, "Evidence Revisited—DNA, POE, and GPS," OnBoard   4 (January 1998): 1–2, 5.

Elizabeth Shown Mills, "Analyzing and Reviewing Published Sources," OnBoard   3 (May 1997): 16.

Elizabeth Shown Mills, "Producing Quality Research Notes," OnBoard   3 (January 1997): 8.

Elizabeth Shown Mills, "Transcribing Source Materials," OnBoard   2 (January 1996): 8.

Elizabeth Shown Mills, "Citing Your Sources," OnBoard   1 (September 1995): 24.

Elizabeth Shown Mills, "Analyzing Wills for Useful Clues," OnBoard   1 (May 1995): 16.

Elizabeth Shown Mills, "Analyzing Deeds for Useful Clues," OnBoard   1 (January 1995): 8.

 “Ten-Minute Methodology” is an occasional series published on BCG’s SpringBoard blog intended to educate and challenge BCG associates, aspirants, and the genealogical community at large. 

> Proof Statements 1 Judy Kellar Fox, CG —The heart of all our genealogical work is determining identities and relationships and proving them.  Proof statements  are one means of presenting our genealogical conclusions. Not all statements, even if they are source-cited, are proof statements. Proof statements are special. All by themselves, individually, they can make a case for a conclusion and comply with the Genealogical Proof Standard. What? How does that happen? Let’s look at one of the standards.

> Proof Statements 2, Examples Judy Kellar Fox, CG —Examples of proof statements in a genealogical summary and proof statements in a database.

> Proof Summaries and Arguments 1 Judy Kellar Fox, CG —We genealogists aim for accuracy in representing identities and relationships. We want to show why we believe people were who we say they were. We want to show that they really belonged with the folks we attach them to. We follow the Genealogical Proof Standard to ensure that our research is thorough, our sources well documented, our reasoning levelheaded, and our conflicts resolved. Then we write up our conclusions. Standards 51 through 54 in  Genealogy Standards  describe the qualities we aim for in writing our proofs for the public, for ourselves, and for posterity.

> Proof in a Narrative Judy Kellar Fox, CG —Proofs don’t have to be complicated, and they don’t have to resolve conflicting evidence. They don’t have to include indirect evidence, either, even though it may be present and could be included to support an argument. Sometimes multiple pieces of  direct  evidence support a genealogical conclusion. They all answer the genealogy question directly. As promised in the last Ten-Minute Methodology post on proofs here is an example from a published work by Michael Hait, CG.

> Proof in a Footnote Judy Kellar Fox, CG —A genealogical proof can be as simple and compact as a footnote. Yes! Believe it. From an example by Donn Devine, CG, FNGS.

> Identity Proof in a List Judy Kellar Fox, CG —We’ve seen in earlier posts what genealogical proofs look like in a narrative and a footnote. A list, bulleted or numbered, is another effective way of presenting the proof that supports a conclusion. Proofs in list format are clean, concise, and easy to follow. All the data is assembled in one place, and the correlation is obvious. From an example by Harold Henderson, CG.

> Are You Searching or Researching? Judy Kellar Fox, CG —Are you up to date? From the old  Standards Manual  to the new  Genealogy Standards  the first component of the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS) is different. Have you noticed? We used to say, “We conduct a reasonably exhaustive search.” That’s still true, but there’s more. We conduct reasonably exhaustive  re search. Those two added letters bring much more to what others expect of us as genealogists and what we must expect of ourselves.

> What Is “Reasonably Exhaustive” Research? Judy Kellar Fox, CG —Let’s look at the searching part of research. As in the last post on research, we’ll see that it’s more involved than just looking. Genealogy Standards offers this goal of reasonably exhaustive data-collection: “Genealogists attempt to collect all information potentially relevant to the questions they investigate.”[1] Got that? All information. All potentially relevant information. Potentially relevant to the questions under investigation.

> “Reasonably Exhaustive”—How Do We Know We’re There? Judy Kellar Fox, CG —Evaluating what we’ve done. There comes a time when we have to stop researching. Sometimes it’s when we feel we’ve answered our research question. Sometimes we’re unsure, fearing we missed something. We can evaluate our research to see if it’s reasonably exhaustive by asking questions about its breadth and strength.

> When Index Is a “Dirty Word” Judy Kellar Fox, CG —Genealogical work supported by indexes alone can be unreliable. What? What’s wrong with the Social Security Death Index (SSDI)? It comes from a reliable source. Other indexes are good, too! Why not use them and cite them as sources?

> Beyond the Index—or Not Judy Kellar Fox, CG —When we know what we want, and we can’t get at it because of access restrictions or record loss or destruction, we are challenged to use our creativity and knowledge of sources to provide substitutes. When no substitutes surface after reasonably exhaustive research, we use the index as our best source. This is, however, a last resort.

> Documentation and the Research Report Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FASG, FNGS, FUGA —It’s a fact of life. In a world governed by laws and standards, rules for one aspect of life often collide with rules for another. So it seems with the research report by which we genealogists chronicle each block of research we do. A research report has one basic goal: to provide written documentation of the research process we executed, the findings we developed, and the conclusions we reached. As a work product, a research report is expected to achieve an appropriate balance of both writing skills and documentation skills. Each of these two skills is governed by one fundamental concept.

> How to Ask Good Research Questions Harold Henderson, CG —Genealogists are often confused. It comes with the territory. We can’t always avoid it, but we would prefer not to wallow in it. Have you ever had a conversation (with yourself or someone else) that began something like this made-up one?

> Numbering a Genealogy 1: Immigration Judy Kellar Fox, CG —Meet the Walkers: William, Margaret, their children, and grandchildren. In several posts we will use this family to explore issues encountered when numbering a genealogy, one of the relationship-formatting options of Standard 65, Genealogical formats. This first post will show how to number the Walker family abroad and after immigration to the United States. Successive posts will show how to number adoptive children, those of unknown paternity, and children of successive spouses.

> Numbering a Genealogy 2: “Adoptive” Children Judy Kellar Fox, CG —The Walker familyintroduced us to the basic numbering system of a descending genealogy in the last post. The family of William and Margaret (Lauderdale) Walker also offers examples that require more complex numbering.

> Numbering a Genealogy 3: Adoptions and Children of Multiple Marriages Judy Kellar Fox, CG —The Walker family showed us how to accommodate numbering children born to unknown fathers in the second numbering post. Complexities continue in Generation Two with two types of informal adoption and children born to a descendant by two spouses.

> Numbering a Genealogy 4: Adoptions and Children of Multiple Partners Judy Kellar Fox, CG —This post wraps up discussion of adoption and multiple partners.

> Numbering Adoptees in a Genealogy Judy Kellar Fox, CG —Why are adoptees treated differently from biological children in numbering a genealogy? It’s a great question and deserves a reasoned answer. The response relies on background information in  Numbering Your Genealogy.

BCG partners with Legacy Family Tree to produce instructional hour-long webinars by BCG associates. The webinars are free when first presented each month and for a limited time afterwards. For upcoming webinars, click here.  For descriptions and links to recordings of past webinars from February 2024, click here . Access for earlier recordings can be found at the BCG Webinar Library at  http://legacy.familytreewebinars.com/?aid=2619 .  Note : BCG receives a commission if a person registers for or buys a webinar using the affiliate link.

Many of these BCG webinars review the application of genealogy standards to research issues. Of particular interest to persons considering certification are:

The following materials appear here as examples of genealogical work prepared by board-certified genealogists and, in many cases, published by peer-reviewed journals.

Each work sample appears here with the permission of the author, is copyrighted by the author, and may not be further reproduced elsewhere without the written consent of the author. Facsimile copies of published articles appear with the permission of the National Genealogical Society and the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society.

Note that no example is ever perfect in every respect. Moreover, every journal has its own style requirements reflecting its own traditions that may not comport entirely with the requirements of The BCG Application Guide . For these reasons, these samples are not models for portfolio submissions. In all portfolio submissions, the Application Guide controls.

Research Reports | Case Studies | Family Histories | Client Agreements

Research Reports

The following work samples are presented in chronological order, newest to oldest.

Green, Shannon, CG. "Alta Jane Durst's Father" (2021 DNA report sample)

Zinck, Jennifer, CG. "Parents of Clara Cowles of Suffield, Connecticut. " (2020 new applicant portfolio)

Wayne, Debbie Parker, CG. "Who were the Parents of Minnie J., wife of Thomas Anderson...?" (2020 renewal portfolio)

Ball-Kilbourne, Gary, CG. "Calvin Research Report." (2018 new applicant portfolio)

Vidlak, Mary O'Brien, CG. John C. Follette research report . (2015 new applicant portfolio)

Mills, Elizabeth Shown, CG, CGL, FASG. “Samuel Witter (1787-1876) and the War of 1812.” (2012/2017)

Ruffner, Malissa, CG. “ Pierre Lapouraille (m.1819). ” (2012 new applicant portfolio)

> BACK TO TOP OF PAGE

Case Studies

Garrett-Nelson, LaBrenda, JD, LLM, CG, CGL. "Parents for Isaac Garrett of Laurens County, South Carolina: DNA Corroborates Oral Tradition."   National Genealogical Society Quarterly 108 (June 2020): 85–112. NGSQ Award of Excellence, 2020.

Henningfield, Melinda, CG. "A Family for Mary (Jones) Hobbs Clark of Carroll County, Arkansas."   National Genealogical Society Quarterly 107 (March 2019): 5–30. NGSQ Award of Excellence, 2019.

Peters, Nancy A., CG, CGL. “Hiram Cochran, Freedman of Abbeville County, South Carolina.” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 106 (September 2018): 165–180.

Russell, Judy G, JD, CG, CGL. “George Washington Cottrell of Texas: One Man or Two? ” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 105 (September 2017): 165-179. NGSQ Award of Excellence 2017.

Hobbs, Patricia Lee, CG. “DNA Identifies a Father for Rachel, Wife of James Lee of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania.” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 105 (March 2017):43–56.

Hoitink, Yvette, CG. “ Griete Smit’s Parentage: Proof in the Absence of Vital Records. ” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 104 (December 2016): 245-256.

Garrett-Nelson, LaBrenda, JD, LLM, CG, CGL. “ Resolving a Modern Genealogical Problem: What was Rainey Nelson’s Birth Name? ”  National Genealogical Society Quarterly 104 (September 2016): 203–213.

Stanbary, Karen, CG. “ Rafael Arriaga, a Mexican Father in Michigan: Autosomal DNA Helps Identify Paternity. ”  National Genealogical Society Quarterly 104 (June 2016): 85-98. NGSQ Award of Excellence 2016.

Baty, Laurel T., CG. “ Aaron Strickland's North Carolina Origin. ” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 104 (March 2016): 21–37.

Johnson, Melissa A., CG. “ Mothers for Sophie (Kanetski) Howe of Scranton, Pennsylvania. ”  National Genealogical Society Quarterly 103 (June 2015): 105-113.

Jones, Thomas W., Ph.D., CG, CGL, FASG. “ Too Few Sources to Solve a Family Mystery? Some Greenfields in Central and Western New York. ”  National Genealogical Society Quarterly 103 (June 2015): 85–103.

Lennon, Rachal Mills, CG, FASG. “ Context and Comrades Illuminate a Silent Southerner: John Temple (1758–1838), Revolutionary War Pensioner. ” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 103 (March 2015): 49–67. NGSQ Award of Excellence 2015.

Andrews, Jean Atkinson, CG. “ Indirect Evidence for the Identity of Richard Andrews (1748-1824) of Stark County, Ohio. ”  National Genealogical Society Quarterly 103 (March 2015): 37–48.

Peterson, Allen R., CG, AG. “ Dead Men Do Not Sell Timber: The Sinking of the Snow Owen and Captain Plato Denney's Two Deaths. ”  National Genealogical Society Quarterly 101 (September 2013): 175-188.

Mills, Elizabeth Shown, CG, CGL, FASG. “ Which Marie Louise is ‘Mariotte’? Sorting Slaves of Common Names. ” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 94 (September 2006): 183-204.

Family Histories

Hare, Alison, CG. "The Family of John Goldfinch and Sarah Honey: From Kent, England, to New Brunswick, Canada."  (2019 renewal portfolio)

Hoyt, Sharon L., CG. “Her Sixth Matrimonial Venture: The Many Marriages of Ida May Chamberlain.” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 106 (September 2018): 217–238. Winner, NGS Family History Writing Contest 2017.

Tomlinson, Leslie Watson, CG. "The Rickmonds: A Railroad Family." (2018 new applicant portfolio)

Stallings, Faye Jenkins, CG. "Following the Umbilical Line from Rachael Vowles to Her Granddaughter Amanda Ann Norris." (2018 new applicant portfolio)

Henderson, Harold A., CG. “ A Stitch In Time: Female Descendants of Polly Holmes (1805–1839) of Madison County. ”  New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 148 (2017): 173-190.

Wilds, Scott M., CG. “ Three Generations: From West Africa to the Great Migration. ” (Online publication, 2017 new applicant portfolio).

Graham, Paul K., CG, AG. “A Love Story Proved: The Life and Family of Laura Lavinia (Kelly) Combs of Atlanta and Augusta, Georgia.”   National Genealogical Society Quarterly 101 (December 2013): 245-266. Winner, NGS Family History Writing Contest 2012.

Bittner, F. Warren, CG. “ Without Land, Occupation, Rights, or Marriage Privilege: The Buttner Family from Bavaria to New York. ”  National Genealogical Society Quarterly 100 (September 2012): 165-187. Winner, NGS Family History Writing Contest 2011.

Client Agreements

A genealogist performing research for others is well-advised to have a written agreement for services. Moreover, the research report for another person submitted as part of a BCG portfolio must contain the permission of the person for whom the report was prepared. Sample agreements for these purposes -- to be used only as a springboard for analysis and discussion and not as a substitute for consulting with an attorney licensed to practice in the relevant jurisdictions -- may be found here:

• Client Release

• Client Agreement

Test Your Document Skills

Applicants for certification are sent a copy of an historical document that relates to the geographic areas and time periods in which they normally work. The document is chosen based on the research background the applicant specified on his or her Preliminary Application Form. Applicants are asked to undertake specific tasks set out in full in The BCG Application Guide .

This gives an applicant an opportunity to demonstrate the ability to read, transcribe and abstract handwritten records, analyze their contents, and design an efficient research plan for answering a research question based on clues found in a document.

You can test your transcription and abstracting skills by opening each of the documents provided here, preparing your own transcription and an abstract, and then comparing your work to the samples below.

• 1836 North Carolina Agreement

• 1836 North Carolina Agreement – Document • 1836 North Carolina Agreement – Transcription • 1836 North Carolina Agreement – Abstract

• 1864 South Carolina Will

• 1864 South Carolina Will – Document • 1864 South Carolina Will – Transcription • 1864 South Carolina Will – Abstract

• 1911 South Carolina Deed

• 1911 South Carolina Deed – Document • 1911 South Carolina Deed – Transcription • 1911 South Carolina Deed – Abstract