Wordle as a Genealogy Research Metaphor?

Success at Wordle depends on three general things: your choice of a first word, your vocabulary, and your ability to problem-solve.

Genealogy research is the same. Our success (or lack thereof) depends on how much we originally know and how correct that information is. Just like Wordle challenges sometimes go better if we get lucky on that first word. Our success in genealogy research also depends not so much on our vocabulary (although knowing what legal words mean really helps), but more on how much we know about sources in the area where our person lives and if we are able to apply sound and organized research methodology.

And our ability to problem-solve is inordinately helpful. Sometimes success at Wordle depends on our ability to get our first idea out of our head when it does not work. Genealogy is the same–sometimes we need to get our assumptions and initial conclusions out of our head and start from scratch.

The good thing about genealogy is that we’re not limited in the number of letters in the word or the number of times we have to get it right. And we’re not limited to one day to solve it.

But genealogy is like Wordle in that (at least it seems like) there is a new problem every day.