The Research Like a Pro Genealogy Podcast

In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss using the Research Like a Pro process to discover more about the actions of our ancestor, Florence Creer Kelsey. She was a War Mother during WWII, and Diana did a project to discover what that was and learn more about the organization. Veteran's Day this year is the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, so we discuss a little bit about honoring our a...

In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss how to deal with and write about family secrets that we uncover during genealogy research. Often these skeletons in the closet bring up difficult emotions and threaten to upset family members. As the historians in our family, do we have a duty to tell the story? How should we tell it? Diana shares some thoughts about uncovering how her great grandf...

In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss what professional genealogists can do for you. We discuss hiring researchers to solve difficult problems in your family tree, writing a family history book,  transcribing and translating documents, researching on-site, heritage trips, etc. We also discuss how to choose a professional genealogist and what you should expect. Let's get started! Links...

In our podcast episode today, I'm discussing my research project to discover the parents of Lucinda Keaton of Pendleton, Anderson County, South Carolina. Diana and I will review what I knew when I started the project, how I found clues leading to a hypothesis that her father was William Keaton of Pendleton District, South Carolina, and what records I searched to prove the hypothesis. We'll discuss...

In today's podcast episode, Diana and I are talking about continuing education in genealogy. Benjamin Franklin said, "an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." We discuss accreditation, the importance of keeping up with new methodologies and developments in the field such as DNA, and how to go about improving your genealogy education. Learning about records, localities, and methodologies...

Today Diana and I discuss productivity and how to make the best use of your research time. We discuss various ideas including the pomodoro technique, using Google Keep, a 30x30 challenge for daily research in small increments of time, and using a time journal to notice what you spend time on and eliminate time thieves. Links Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist's Guide by Diana Elder with Nicole Dye...

In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss ideas for organizing genealogy papers, documents, electronic files, and more. We'll talk about how to choose a personal family tree software program and how to create backups of your research so they don't get lost or destroyed. Diana is going to talk about her story of receiving a suitcase full of unorganized genealogy papers from her father and h...

In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss a research project that Diana completed to determine if George W. Dillard was the father of our ancestor, Cynthia (Dillard) Royston. Here's the objective of the project:   The objective of this research project was to determine if George W. Dillard born 1781 in Virginia and died 1854 in Lee County, Alabama was the father of Cynthia (Dillard) Roysto...

In today's episode of the podcast we are talking all about why you should write your results at the end of a research project. There are so many reasons, but probably the most important is that the act of writing about something helps you make connections and solve problems. And of course, it also helps you to leave the project knowing that you can pick it back up in a year and know exactly where...

In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss research logs.  You know, that dreaded spreadsheet that you should keep when you're doing research. We will discuss a few different types of research logs, including Research Ties, spreadsheets, tables, paper logs, and the research notebook. We will also talk about how we normally use our research log in our workflow. Diana is going to talk about h...

Today's episode is about source citations. We'll discuss when you need to make citations, how to do it, and the questions to ask that will guide you as you create them: who, what, when, where within, and where in the world. If you feel overwhelmed by the thought of making source citations you're not alone. Nicole tells about her experience really learning how to do it.  Diana will tell us about la...

Today's podcast episode is all about why you need to start creating research plans for every project, and how to do it. There are fives steps: Create a document with objective at top, compile a summary of known facts, write a hypothesis, make a list of sources to search, then finalize a prioritized strategy. We will talk about the need to be flexible as we follow our research plans, since plans ch...

Today Diana and I are going to wrap up our discussion of locality research. In last week's episode we talked about the first two question to ask: "What happened?" and "Where did it happen?" Today, we are talking about the last question: "Why did it happen?" This episode is all about the historical context that affected our ancestors lives. What is your favorite way to learn about historical contex...

Today we're talking about preparing to research by learning more about the where your ancestor lived. Doing locality research is absolutely essential! Previously, we talked about objectives in epsidode 2 , and analysis in episode 3 . Those are the first steps in a research project. Today, Diana and I are going to dive in to the next step, locality research, and talk in depth about all the ways you...

Today, Diana and I are talking about analyzing your sources - the next thing to do in your research project after creating an objective. In order to establish what you know and determine how reliable it is, you must analyze the source, information, and evidence on a record.   Start by gathering up all the sources that you've already found. Talk to close relatives who have knowledge or information...

Today, Diana and I discuss research objectives. Focusing your research with a question is an important step when getting started in any research project. We'll talk about the three types of research objectives (identity, relationship and actions) and the best type to start with. Diana talks about writing down your objective and including unique identifiers. This is so important when you're doing a...

Diana and I tell about our background in family history and give an overview of the Research Like a Pro process. Diana got started in genealogy research when her father gave her a suitcase full of family history papers. Diana shares her journey in accreditation and tells about how she came up with the Research Like a Pro process, which resulted in a series of blog posts, a study group, book, and e...