Become a Better Researcher By Reviewing What You Know

Peer reviewing is the most important part of analyzing the research that you encounter or receive from others. However, it’s important that you evaluate your own work before you head off on a research quest.

In the video Developing a Research Question, I explained the need to add specifics to your research question so you know that you have arrived at an answer once you make a discovery. I also mentioned that your research questions come from previous research or knowledge.

In my newest video, I want you to review what you think you know before you start researching to find an answer to your question.

Let’s say our simplified question is:

When and where was Christian Hoppe born?

We expanded our question to be more specific so that we know which Christian Hoppe is which. The question looked like this:

What is the birth date and place of Christian Christopher Hoppe, who married Anna Margaretha Kalsberger on 12 April 1859 in Franklin County, Ohio and father of Christian, Marguerite, and Anna Hoppe?

How do we know that Christian Christopher Hoppe was married to Anna and had those three children? Ah ha! That’s the critical question:

How do you know what you know when you formulated your question?

For this example, the easiest answer is:

The marriage record informs me that Christian Hoppe and Margaretta Karlsberger married.

A family photo album has pictures of Christian Christoph Hoppe, Marguerite Hoppe and Anna Hoppe. Photos are great, don’t get me wrong, but they aren’t helping piece together the family as there is no family group photo in the collection. However, I know that this photo album belonged to Marguerite Hoppe, whose married surname was Geiszler.

I found Marguerite Hoppe’s death record and it has the following information:

Looky there! Christopher Hoppe’s birthplace is listed as Germany.

I’m done, right?

Well, I still haven’t determined when he was born in Germany or the name of the village, but I have proven one point in genealogy research.

Sometimes you already have the foundation of an answer in research you have previously conducted.

Sometimes the answers you need are in your home sources. Photos albums may identify the facts you seek. Sometimes you’ll have letters, where individuals who could qualify as a quality informant about your ancestor, record all the details you want to find.

You need to review what you know before you look for more answers.

Now, is this death certificate for Marguerite Hoppe Geiszler enough to establish the birth place of her father Christian Hoppe? NOPE!

That leads to the next point I want to emphasize.

One record is rarely enough evidence to answer your questions.

In reviewing Marguerite’s siblings death register entry, that spanned four pages, we see that Christopher Hoppe was from Germany. This discovery that I had already made was consistent, Christian Christopher Hoppe was from Germany.

Sometimes the information you have that tells you what you know when you discover something you don’t know is more sparse than this case, but I hope I’ve helped you see how important it is to reexamine the source material you have already gathered, both offline and on.

How are you going to keep track of all of this information?

Use online trees. You can attach the four sources mentioned in this post to the FamilySearch family tree.

Use a genealogy program. I use RootsMagic to backup my online trees and their sources.

Why else should you review what you know?

The final benefit for reviewing what you know is that you’ll recognize your discoveries. I didn’t need to search for the death records of Christian’s children because I already had from previous research.

Wouldn’t you hate to spend any additional time doing repetitive research work when the answers you need are in your possession?

To sum up, your research will lead you to questions. Write specific questions that will help you find your answers. Once the questions are formulated, reevaluated any related evidence you have gathered might have the answer or clues pointing you in the right direction.