GENEALOGY AND HISTORY

Regular Weekly Assignment

Starting in the third week of the course, after you have written your autobiography and an analysis of your name, there will be a regular weekly assignment of 1-2 type-written to be handed in at each week’s class meeting.  If you fail to hand it in, it must be brought to me during my office hours that week or delivered to the history department staff to be placed in my mailbox.

 Part 1: 

A.  Formulate a "question of the week" that you would like to have answered and then do your best to answer that question in 1-2 type-written pages

For example, your question might be, which of my relatives appear in the SSDI?  Or, does my great grandfather appear in any of the Federal Census records?

B.  Write out a strategy for pursuing the question, indicating which sources might be helpful in trying to answer it. 

Be detailed!!  For example, do not simply say something like “county records.”  Instead, indicate what county records you would use and where they might be found. 

Your paper should demonstrate that you have learned enough about the genealogical sources to know where you should look when trying to answer your question.

How can you discover what are the best sources for answering many of the more challenging questions?  Consult Genealogy on Line for Dummies and/or Rootsweb.com.  Both tell you a great deal about the many types of sources used in conducting genealogical research.

C.  Afterwards, explain what sources you have actually used in attempting to answer your question. 

Obviously, if various of the sources you mention in the section on your research strategy are neither local nor web-based, the chances are you will be unable to consult them. 

The fact that you cannot at present access these more distant sources should not kprevent you from mentioning them when you are drawing up your strategy.

 Look for other sources that might help you answer your question among family papers, in the library, on the web, or in conversations with family members.

Indicate briefly just how helpful or unhelpful the web has been in tracking down information relevant to your question.

 D.  Be prepared to report on your research to the class.

 
Part 2:  Consider how (if at all) what you have learned that week helps fit your family into American history