Genealogy
« Previous EntriesThe Finding-Knowing Gap
Sunday, February 5th, 2012Across my office on a bookshelf, I have a book called The Knowing-Doing Gap. Not surprisingly, it is about the difference between knowing what to do and actually doing it. It is a book about management, not about genealogy but I was reminded of it the other day. What reminded me was a thought or [...]
Researching the Undead
Sunday, January 29th, 2012In a big project that I’ve been working on, there has been a large cast of supporting characters. People who weren’t goals of the research but who were necessary to the research. Now, as I work on the book that is based on that research, I’ve realized that I have left a few people hanging. [...]
Is it Ever as Simple as it Looks?
Sunday, January 22nd, 2012Human beings are complicated. We all know that. We’re well aware of the complexity of our own lives, of our own times. We often think that life was simple and uncomplicated before. Part of it is that we were all children once and after we’ve blocked out the hard parts of growing up we’re left [...]
Path of Least Persistence
Sunday, January 15th, 2012The next time you meet someone who is fairly new to research, try to notice what mode they are in. You just might be able to help them out a bit. By “mode,” I’m thinking of the classic optimist/pessimist difference that is contained in the old question about the glass—is it half-empty of half-full? Almost [...]
The Path of Logic
Sunday, January 8th, 2012I’ve taken a bit of a holiday hiatus from writing about research. So far, I’ve written about repeatability, openness, goals, and searching the literature. Another important part of research is the logical path that connects the evidence signposts together and leads to the conclusion. Part of the research process is to pave that path and [...]
Puzzle Piece Happiness
Saturday, December 31st, 2011I was reading about the nature of happiness the other day and it got me thinking about what makes me happy as a family historian. What makes one happy has a lot to do with where effort gets placed so I think that it it an interesting question. Stuff and gadgets might make me happy [...]
Twas a Genealogist’s Night Before Christmas
Saturday, December 24th, 2011This week I’m taking a break from seriousness and posting something just for fun. I’ve always loved writing parodies and when this popped into my head on December 22nd, I decided that I had a blog post. So with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore here we go— Twas the night before Christmas and all through [...]
Goal!
Sunday, December 11th, 2011Another facet of research is that it starts with a goal. The goal may be fairly general. For example it might be to gather information about a certain surname in a certain area and during a certain time period. Often, though, the goal relates to a hypothesis. Goals and Hypotheses In most research a hypothesis [...]
Genealogy Literati
Sunday, December 4th, 2011Literati, (plural noun) – well-educated people who are interested in literature. One of the most important things about open research is that it makes it possible not just to check research but to avoid repeating it unknowingly. In science, no one wants to turn in a grant proposal for an experiment only to be informed [...]
Holding the Door Open
Sunday, November 27th, 2011This week, I need to start where I left off last week, with reproducibility. This week comes a facet to research that overlaps greatly with reproducibility—openness. If reproducibility is central to true research, there must be some way to see inside what someone else has done. It must be possible to understand not just the [...]
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