Do you like the idea of a genealogy checklist? A handy little list you just follow and mark items off so you know where you are?
I like that idea, too. It sounds much less intimidating than a research plan or doing analysis.
I still often yearn for a nice little checklist to walk me through my research.
But there's a problem. Using genealogy checklists—especially source checklists—can be fraught with perils!
Yes, perils!!!
Don't get me wrong, you can use them, and use them successfully. But I want to warn you of the perils (because I know how much you want a simple checklist to hold your hand through the research process, because I want it, too).
✨By the way, if you're just here for a source checklist, we've got one for you. But before you grab it and go, hear me out—you may be missing the bigger picture if you stop at the list.
Here's the gist of this post, all wrapped up for you right here at the beginning.
A genealogy checklist is a great organizational tool.
A genealogy checklist is not to be used instead of your brain!
Genealogy Research Checklist vs. Genealogy To-Do List
Recently I wrote about a genealogy to-do list as the solution for Occasional Genealogists (our digital Genealogy Dashboard is the solution I created for a supercharged to-do list, it includes digital lists to get you started). The reason a checklist is helpful is for many of the same reasons (especially when you're short on time) but I'm talking about two different things when I talk about a genealogy checklist and a genealogy to-do list.
(See the other post if you were looking for what I call a to-do list).
You could call both a checklist but usually genealogy checklists are source checklists (but good luck trying to find information about a "source checklist" online without using the word genealogy—I've just made it shorter by saying "genealogy checklist" instead of "genealogy source checklist").
Now that that is out of the way, let's talk about the...
PERILS of the Genealogy Checklist (insert scary music)
How NOT to Use Genealogy Checklists
The best reason NOT to use a genealogy checklist is how unique EVERY. SINGLE. PROJECT. is.
However, that's also why a checklist is so appealing. There's a point in everyone's genealogy journey where you really want something like a checklist.
You just want some surety that you've checked the sources "you know you should," but you're afraid you've overlooked something big. Sometimes you just have this feeling there's more to check but you can't put a name to it.
This is actually why we create research plans (short actionable plans, not huge-cover-every-scenario plans) and also why we track all research (traditionally done by keeping a research log). The research plan tells us what to do next and the research log tells us what we've done, regardless if it produced helpful results.
But Occasional Genealogists can struggle with the time needed for this in-depth research. That's one of the reasons I created the Digital Dashboard—so you have a flexible way to track research ideas, source leads, and tasks, even if you're interrupted. Occasional Genealogists can't always keep track of their progress with a research plan, but they need to use checklists and to-do lists correctly, not as a cheat.
How to Use a Genealogy Checklist
Here is one 3-step method to use a checklist without cheating:
- Use your checklist to brainstorm 10 possible sources related to your goal*.
- Next to each idea, jot down why it might help your current project.
- Mark whether the source actually exists or is worth pursuing for your timeframe and location.
*You want a goal when you are researching. When using a research plan, this is a hypothesis that plan is testing. But this can require more time than you have (because you don't want to get interrupted and lose your train of thought).
A great thing for Occasional Genealogists to do, because interruptions don't make such a difference, is focus on a research task. This task is your goal in that situation. A task might be "find all the 1850 census records for the siblings in this family." It might be "identify types of marriage records for my Higginbottoms living in the 1870s and 1880s. A task might be coming up with new source ideas for a specific project, which could follow the 3-step method above.
I recommend this bite-size approach for Occasional Genealogists because it helps you keep track of what you actually did without requiring a lot of time once you finish. This should allow you to record your progress if you're interrupted by anything but a life-threatening emergency. You just need time to check a box or write a short sentence---if you kept track of your progress as you worked.
I hope you see, checklists are a great option for Occasional Genealogists doing research tasks. They are a cheat if you use them instead of a research plan.
Grab our free source checklist, here.
Not every action we take in genealogy requires a research plan. But research plans are a core part of the genealogy research process. Let's quickly look at how these three things work together, and the distinction you need to make sure and address.
Checklist Cheats
The big problem with using a checklist is skipping any analysis, usually planning stage analysis, and blindly following your checklist.
Don't freak out over the word "analysis." You are probably already doing analysis, it's asking questions and seeking answers. Basically, it's thinking about your problem, goals, etc. and how to find a solution.
In fact, we need to do a bit of analysis, right now, to understand how checklists and plans are so similar, how they're different, and how we don't cheat when we don't create a plan.
The Genealogy Research Process, Do You Need It?
The genealogy research process is how we go from seeking an answer to finding it. That means it is only for solving a genealogy problem. It is not a process you're constantly progressing through from the moment you start genealogy (it's not one continuous stream).
It is a cycle we repeat really often. That means you're not in the middle constantly, you're restarting (and progressing and finishing) constantly. You can also be in multiple cycles at once and they will be in different places. That's because it's one cycle for one problem.
In the middle of the process is research planning. A research plan tests a single hypothesis for the problem or sub-problem you are focused on. You finish that one plan, complete the process and start the process over.
I mention this to highlight the cycle is for one really specific thing that ends pretty quickly (you can, of course, have to stop, but let's say the cycle is paused and we don't count that paused time in what we consider "quickly"). To get a more specific understanding of what the genealogy research process is, read this post.
Since this is a cycle, imagine the research process as a little ball. Your whole genealogy, which you could think of like a trough that keeps getting longer the longer you do genealogy, is full of these little balls. But there is also space around the little balls. There are things in genealogy outside the research process.
This is where you use checklists. Checklists don't belong in the research process. Plans, logs, notes, reports (and the supporting material like written analysis, charts, etc.) belong in the process.
But a checklist is still helpful and can get you into the process. If you replace planning, logs, and/or notes with a checklist, you're cheating.
Also, not thinking, doing analysis, writing up results (i.e. cheating) will stunt your research progress and it will hamper the development of your analytical/planning skills. This is a vicious cycle of frustration where you don't make progress, you cheat the process meant to drive progress, you don't learn new skills, which otherwise leads to faster progress, and you repeat back to frustration.
Genealogy is not fast as a whole. The research process can not be sped up at will. You can be more efficient to go through a cycle of the process faster, but after a certain point, your "efficient" shortcuts turn into cheats. Accept this is a lifetime hobby and you just need to enjoy the journey (genealogy is a roadtrip, not just a destination).
Before I talk about good features in a checklist, here's something to rememer.
You want a tool, not a crutch.
A crutch helps you when you aren't able. You don't want a crutch, you just don't have another choice.
A tool, on the other hand, helps you. You bring skills to the tool. A tool can hinder you if it's not good enough, but you can also hinder the tool.
What I want you to remember is you need a tool, not a crutch. You are an important part of the equation. You need to bring skills and know-how to use the tool (checklist) or it isn't really going to help, although you might think it does. Your skills should progress and your checklist should adapt or even turn into something different.
You are an important part of the equation. You need to bring skills and know how to use the checklist.
A Good Genealogy Source Checklist
So what does a good checklist look like?
First, you want to start with a checklist that is appropriate for your situation. A checklist aimed at U.S. researchers may be useless to someone not doing U.S. research. It depends if you have the skill to adapt the list or not. A colonial American source checklist is very different from a 20th-century source checklist.
If you are not a beginner, it gets very hard to find a pre-made checklist for subjects you are very familiar with. At some point, you HAVE to customize the checklist. You might find an amazing and comprehensive checklist but unless you are an absolute beginner, don't rely on it.
Remember, EVERY project is unique and different. No one can hand you a perfect checklist. You might get a checklist that covers what you have access to right now or covers the sources you have the skills to use right now. You will have to customize a checklist that will list every possible source for your specific project.
Our source checklist is designed to be the most basic list. Customize it for different projects by thinking of more specific types of each item and also alternatives. This blog is a general genealogy blog so the list I created was meant to be a starting point anyone could use. Use it as a tool, bring your skills to it.
Also, most items on a (good) checklist probably don't exist for your project. You need to make sure you've considered them, though!
This is a big reason you have to think and have skills. You don't want to waste hours, weeks, months, or years looking for a record that doesn't exist, only because it was on your checklist. Sometimes we need to spend years looking for a source that it turns out doesn't exist. Most items on a checklist don't fall into that category.
As an example. All of my family is from Georgia. Almost every checklist will tell you to look for birth and death records. I haven't been working on generations that should have birth records in almost two decades (they start in 1918 for Georgia).
Most of the people I work on shouldn't have death records (that's still a source I have to double-check as you can't be sure where someone died unless you know where they died! It doesn't take long to double-check for most people, though). That is not how it works for most of my clients' projects.
If I went hunting for a death record for most people in my personal research, it would be a waste of time. I could determine that is not a source that should exist in most of MY cases. If I skipped that source for clients, well, they should fire me.
Basically, a good source checklist is customized. Customizing a source checklist is a good way to help you work in small amounts of time. Remember, you have to think (do analysis) throughout the research process. Don't use a checklist as a crutch, bring your own skills to it and continue to develop those skills.
A checklist can be a valuable tool in your genealogy toolbox. You may customize it to fit your needs or you may adapt it into a research plan you can quickly use in the time you have available for genealogy.
Now that you know what to do and what not to do, using a checklist shouldn't be fraught with peril!
We have three resources related specifically to this topic of creating and using a source checklist appropriately.
- our free source list
- The Source Solution System
- our digital Genealogy Dashboard (formerly The Occasional Genealogist Planner)
The Source Solution System is a system, a series of steps, to help you generate ideas for sources. This can be to customize your own source checklist or as you work on research planning.
The Genealogy Dashboard is our organizational solution to keeping track of checklists, to-do lists, and more. Customizing a source checklist doesn't help you if you can't find it when you need it. The Dashboard is the first place you go when you're ready to do some genealogy, whether you're in the research cycle or not.
