Creating a Research Plan

Tracing your family history can be overwhelming if you don't have a plan, but where do you even start when trying to make a map for your research? There are a few questions that you should ask yourself when you're starting a new project.

1. Who do you want to research?

   It's best to keep within three generations: think parents, children, and grandparents. This way it's not incredibly overwhelming with the number of people you're trying to find. Keep these parameters in mind when researching because it will help keep you from going down rabbit holes.

2. What do you already know?

   Make sure you have a good idea of what has been researched already. If you're using FamilySearch Family Tree as your starting point, make sure to view every fact as suspect until you verify. You don't know where that information came from. With that, make sure you're researching people you know are your family. People will make up relationships or mess up research, so start at the base of your tree and work your way up. Remember, it's better that your tree connects to the right poor farmers than the wrong rich kings.

3. What do you want to know?

   The possibilities of what you can find are quite vast. If you've never researched the family before start with finding the basics. These are census records, birth/baptism, marriage, and death/burials. These are always the things to start with because they are the posts of solid research. Many times you can't find the other records without these records first.

   Now, if you already have records for these base facts work out what you want to find out next, or if you've hit a brick wall with one of the facts, such as not being able to find a birth date/place, think of the next steps. Maybe you want to find land records to see where exactly your family lived and how they lived. Or maybe you want to search for possible immigration records. Knowing what you want to find will also help keep your focus and make your research go more smoothly.

4. What records are possibly out there?

   It's important to know this as well when you're looking at what you want to find. Prior to 1841, you're not likely to find any useful census records in the UK. Or Catholic church records for Ireland become very sparse before 1790s due to the Penal Laws. Maybe records aren't available because they were destroyed. The 1890 United States Federal Census is almost all gone due to fire and water damage. There are still some fragments, but for most people, it's a waste of time to try looking for their ancestors in the 1890 census. There are many different possibilities for why records may not be there, so make sure to check out the FamilySearch Research Wiki before doing a deep dive.

5. How much time do you want to spend?

   Keep in mind there are some records that won't be found no matter how much time and effort you put into looking for them. It's important to give yourself limits so you don't go crazy. When we as professionals do projects, we have parameters for what to find and how much time to spend on the project. Of course, you're not paying yourself for your research (though maybe you should!), but your time is still valuable. Giving yourself a time limit will help you to get to a point to re-evaluate your research plan or even start on a new family unit.

All in all, a research plan is important for everyone from the hobby genealogist to the professional. It guides your research and helps keep you sane. You will find you start to get better results as you discipline yourself and your research.