There’s several ways to organize your research process. Different ones work for different people. Some of us use a modified version of Polya’s 4-step problem-solving process: Understand Plan Execute Evaluate Problems need to be stated clearly and succinctly (usually involving one person and one key event in their life). Understanding involves knowing all relevant terms, how to access all records in all jurisdictions, etc. That’s not always an easy task, but it’s key to the entire process. Planning what to do comes next, Executing the plan (and tracking it) follows before the evaluation. And then you go back to understanding–because either you solved the problem or you have more problems to solve. Those with an interest in Polya (he was a mathematician) can read his book “How to […]
Some things to remember about DNA tests: have your tree as complete as you can–evaluate connections that were mere guesses or hunches; work on finding descendants of aunts/uncles as far down as you can while waiting for results–this helps with sorting out matches–it’s ok if you can’t figure them all out to the current generation; not every match will respond–people take DNA tests for different reasons and some may be surprised enough about their results that they don’t respond to inquiries.; remember that DNA won’t solve every genealogical problem; use any automatic sorting or predicted ancestor names by AncestryDNA as a potential clue–these predicted ancestors are based partially on trees submitted by other users which are not necessarily correct; you may find close relatives you did not know […]
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