It’s easy to say “yes…I always am aware of my assumptions.” It’s more difficult sometimes to really be aware of what they are. All researchers bring their own background to their genealogical research table. That background effects our assumptions that we make.
One way to catch assumptions is to ask yourself, “how is this situation different from others I’ve researched?” Am I “comparing apples to oranges,” “are there things about this ‘new’ area of which I am really unaware?” One challenge I have in this regard is that my upbringing is rural and my ancestors were rural. I grew up in a county where many people were related to each other, many of our parents attended school together, many of our grandparents attended school together. The county had no stoplight until after I grew up, one had to leave the county to see a movie in a theater, etc.
Because of that, researching urban individuals sometimes requires me to rethink some assumptions when I’m working on my children’s ancestors from Chicago or my own relatives who lived in St. Louis.
When your research migrates into a new time period, culture, or population density, the differences in how one researches are more than just where the courthouse is.
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