Already know what a genealogy FAN club is? This post covers the very basics of how to create and organize one.
This is the follow-up post to "What Is a Genealogy FAN club?" and continues providing what it is and is not as well as organizing ideas.
As a reminder, there are multiple terms we use interchangeably in genealogy that all mean the same technique as FAN club research. They include: "cluster research," "collateral research," "cluster genealogy," and "the FAN principle" or "FAN club principle." This is a traditional research technique, not clustering for genetic genealogy (see a post on that, here).
How do you do cluster research?
There’s nothing different in the actual research, it's still genealogy research. It’s who you research and how you apply it that makes this a special technique. You might need more advanced research skills, but this is for harder, more “advanced” problems, anyway.
Just realize, cluster research is just genealogy research. You already know how to do that. You need to organize the FANs so you can use them. And you need to be able to determine when to research a FAN.
There is no magic formula for cluster research.
Getting Started
Let's start with how someone new to research or just new to cluster research can capture FANs while they learn more. Regular genealogy research notes are also how you can capture FANs, regardless if you have time to organize them or even know you should capture them (I love research notes for all the things they can do for you even when you don't know you should do it!).
The easiest way to get started in cluster research is taking good digital notes (i.e. searchable notes). If you use paper, use research logs to replace the "search" ability of digital files.
[Since originally writing this post, I've discovered MANY genealogists are not taking genealogy notes. Genealogy notes are ESSENTIAL for cluster research. Some genealogists don't realize they need to take notes but others just don't know what to put in their notes. Check out these posts to learn why you need genealogy notes (not just for cluster research) and how to take genealogy notes. This is such a critical topic for your genealogy success that if these posts aren't enough, we offer a signature mini-course on this topic!]
You can abstract the FANs from your notes if needed. If you didn't capture the names (or other details) you can't use the FANs without revisiting a source. It's much faster to instead abstract all the information from research notes. Take great notes to capture FANs and clues you'll need later.
Want to learn more about taking great genealogy notes? Check out our signature mini-course.
How to Create a Genealogy FAN Club
As for organizing the FANs, I've found the most effective method depends on the project. But you can generally organize FANs using a spreadsheet, genealogy software, or even a simple list.
I recommend the spreadsheet or software because you should end up with tons of FANs and want to be able to sort and filter. My personal method (now, after years of trial and error) is to use a spreadsheet or software as my primary method and then I'll essentially correlate my FANs using a method best for the specific project (that might be a customized spreadsheet, customized reports from software, or even something like a mind map).
You can NOT organize FANs with an online tree like those at Ancestry (and any trees with similar functionality). You aren't able to create a list of FANs for a certain person with an online tree of this type so you've essentially lost the FANs in the tree.
You can use an Ancestry tree to store information about the FAN with the organization happening with one of the options I already mentioned. This means if you download/sync your tree with software, the software is what you're using.
Genealogy software and online trees are not the same. Online trees can be downloaded or synced with software and some software will put your tree online, but software allows you to pull out information via reports, rather than having to find a person by name (in this example, a report of everyone marked as a FAN of one person).
Here's an important "what it is not" you need to know before talking more about organizing this info.
Cluster Research is Not... collecting names.
A bunch of collected names will not help you. But it seems like that's all you usually have for the FANs. But that's not actually true.
What You Are "Collecting"
You need to keep track of source, "relationship," and relevant notes. You will always have a name, a relationship, and a source.
Relationship
The relationship is how the FAN relates (interacts) with your person of interest in that document or what relationship is stated. The relationship can be fellow juror, witness, fellow petitioner, neighbor, fellow soldier, or an actual familial relationship or anything else. You need to come up with a relationship that is clear but doesn't make assumptions.
Hint: Don't over think this! The relationship has to be what the source indicates.
If it doesn't indicate that man is his brother-in-law, don't list that as the relationship, that would be an assumption (in that case, make a note this might be the brother-in-law but it isn't stated).
The source doesn't have to spell out the relationship, either. If you've got an affidavit and the man of the brother-in-law's name says he lives next door and you know the brother-in-law lived next door, you can put brother-in-law as the relationship (explain in your notes it isn't stated but how you know).
We are talking about creating a tool to store the FANs. You want to list (and later even change) the relationship so you can tell which occurrences of that name are the same person. That's the point of tracking FANs.
You might find a source that has a vague relationship like fellow petitioner. Later you might find a source where a neighbor states they both signed that petition.
Now you know those two men are the same person. In your collecting tool (the spreadsheet, list, or the entry in your software for that occurence of a FAN of that name from the appropriate source) indicate both men of the same name are neighbors. For the source that didn't state it, you add a note explaining how you know this (this is genealogical analysis, analysis really can be as easy as recognizing what is said in one source relates to a previous one and changes your understanding of it).
Your research notes still need to clearly show what the source says, what it indicates, and what ideas you have. So a source might show your person and this other person on a list, that might indicate they both belong to a political party (but not explicitly state it), and your idea is this other person might be a future brother-in-law of that name.
If we mix these up, we get into trouble. What happens when you discover the brother-in-law and a cousin share the same name? The cousin is just as likely to interact with your ancestor as the brother-in-law. You will have to re-research in each source you associated with the brother-in-law to see which, if any indicated he is the brother-in-law. If your notes are clear, you only need to read your notes (which if digital, will be searchable for that name making that pretty quick).
FAN Notes
Talking about "adding a note" always causes confusion as we also have "research notes." A research note is a document containing multiple pieces of text that we'd refer to as "adding a note." The notes I'm talking about when I say you capture relevant notes are a brief piece of text. I'll call these "FAN notes" for now, for clarity.
You will often have some other small piece of data which I recommend "attaching" as a note (in a cell in a notes column in your spreadsheet, in a note field in software, or under the other data in a simple list). What this other info is will vary so trying to use a standardized space for all the different types of information you come across will result in you adding more and more columns or fields, most of which will be blank (ask me how I know!).
I mentioned I currently keep a simple spreadsheet and then use something specialized for specific analysis. The something specialized is where I'd create a spreadsheet with additional columns for whatever data point is repeated enough to warrant being its own column.
Tip: The additional information you collect is often a date and residence but might be an age or place. It might seem like a good idea to add a date column/field. The only problem is, sometimes you are using the date of the source and sometimes the source provides a date of when one or more interactions happened. You can explain this in a notes field/cell. If you want to sort by date, this can be confusing.
Remember, working with FANs varies by project. I'm suggesting general practices that work for everyday research, not in-depth analysis sessions which should be customized.
Hint: If you do have a lot of extra, relevant, information about a FAN, keep that in a special page of research notes and reference it in your FAN notes. Later you might decide to list the FAN multiple times for multiple relationships or multiple dates, because you've worked on the FAN club long enough to know what customizations help. I've often tried to customize a new FAN tracker and it always causes problems since every project is unique. Once you've got a handle on the FANs (by using many sources, not just from time passing), you'll know what will be best. Experience from one FAN club doesn't translate as well to another FAN club as other experiences.
A Few More Warnings About FANs and Software
Don't rely on a family group sheet or generic genealogy software to provide space to record the information you need when capturing and organizing FANs. Some genealogy software can help you track your FAN club research but you have to know how to use it! (The latest version of RootsMagic added FAN features which has made it much easier to use it for FAN club research).
I've found some common genealogy software programs can record information about FANs, but then you can't get the information out in helpful reports or other outputs. Just keeping the information isn't enough, you have to be able to use it.
You will quickly have a lot of FANs. Before you start entering them all in software, which can take some time, make sure you can generate a list of FANs for a person (and ideally see what other information you can get about each FAN in that report). I really do recommend starting by capturing the FANs in your research notes.
- Make sure software you're considering will give you lists of FANs for a selected person (not just show them as FANs in a view that includes other events).
- Make sure the source is attached for each occurrence of a FAN name (and comes out in the report).
- Don't overcomplicate organizing FANs. Software might do this as many FANs are a name, source, and a few notes that don't fit in the fields provided.
- Do use software you're already using for high-value FANs you have more information on or that you will research (if you don't use software, this isn't necessary).
My Recommendation: Keeping It Simple
I actually prefer to stick with a simple spreadsheet for one reason. You usually know nothing about new FANs but their name (and the source that listed it).
If you have a document that shows twenty-three FANs, I don't want to enter all those names in software, with the citation and any minor details. You might never come across this name again. A spreadsheet allows you to enter just the name and the source (which you can use the shortcut to copy down to everyone you entered when you're done). You can add a note if desired (and easily add the same note for everyone, if that is appropriate).
Keep in mind, you need to be careful not to combine names, they might be different people. That's another reason I like the spreadsheet. In software, you end up with a lot of entries for the same name which makes using your software more cumbersome (when you see a list of names to choose from, you can't tell them apart). Once I know a FAN is important, I will consider adding them to my software.
Using the FAN Club Principle
Once your cluster starts to form, you must do analysis. That’s pretty much the point of cluster research. At what point you do this can vary.
That’s another “what it’s not.”
Creating a FAN club is not easy. It’s also not too hard.
Anyone can collect the information needed for analysis. What you do with that information takes skill. You can develop those skills over time.
If you have the foresight to collect (and organize) a cluster earlier in your research, you will be ahead when you need it. I've given you three specific items to capture for every FAN, plus the catch-all of FAN notes. You often don't know you want more until you first start using the FANs, anyway (if you do know you want more, capture it).
It’s ok if you can’t fully utilize your cluster until later.
The analysis I'm talking about here is a step before you determine which FANs to research as individuals. This analysis might look more like correlation than other analysis, in other words, at first you may mainly use your FANs like data points. You are seeing if the same names recur. The names will hopefully start to cluster up, very much like DNA clustering. There's a big thing to keep in mind with cluster research. With DNA, we are starting with our own DNA (or DNA of a known person of interest) so all the clusters are relevant.
With FAN club research, we might have used records for a different person with the same name as our ancestor. You might start to find multiple clusters because of shifts in your ancestor's life, distinct facets of their life (their could be work and personal clusters, for example), or because you've mixed up two people. By recognizing the clusters, we can work towards figuring out which scenario is correct.
Unfortunately, knowing when to research an individual isn't something I can't tell you when to do. Your skills will tell you when to do this (in other words, "you'll know" but if you don't know, it might simply because you haven't developed enough research experience to recognize the right opportunity).
The Big Use of Clusters
In the previous post, I listed several uses of FANs. At this point in this post, I want to point out an early use of the clusters that should be forming. You should start to recognize groups of, at least surnames, that often appear in sources with your ancestor. These can be relatives and we're usually pretty good at using these for this purpose. But collecting FANs let's you use surname (or full names) to identify more clusters or identify clusters without needing to know there is a familial or other close relationship.
When you find a new document, and the FANs are completely unfamiliar, this can indicate that's not your person. Eventually we want a well developed FAN club that makes this pretty easy. As with most of genealogy, this is a clue, not a fact. You don't automatically discard that document, but you question if it is for your person. If it is (or you strongly suspect it is), why are the FANs unfamiliar? Sometimes there's a simple solution, sometimes it's just something to be aware of.
This can also work the other way, you are questioning if the document is for your person or someone of a similar names---check the FANs.
The more cluster research you perform, the better you'll get at using FANs for that project. This is because you're starting to recognize your person. Not only are you noticing the FANs, you start to recognize the types of records your person does or doesn't appear in, or maybe the types of actions they take. How easy or hard this is depends on how good the data is that you collect. You have limited control over this but doing cluster research improves this for that project, regardless how good the data is compared to another project. In other words...
Everyone Should Collect FANs
Everyone should be starting the most basic cluster, the extended family or whole family. It may seem very efficient to collect only your ancestors’ information but you'll progress faster if you include the immediate family and any extended family you come across.
It is actually most efficient to capture information about the whole family, or household, like on a census page, the first time you look at it. However, you might be trying to get an overview of the situation and just quickly looking at sources you can more carefully review later.
We all have to make choices about how to best use our research time. If you have more time, you should record more information the first time around.
There are also key records that can contain clues or hints of what research to try next, like death certificates, passenger lists, or probate records. Take good notes from these, including capturing the names mentioned beyond your ancestor or ancestor's family. There are all sorts of clues hidden in these types of records but if we don't take notes, we simply remember the bare bones (when and where they died, when they arrived, if the will named children).
Taking notes helps us realize how much more is there and expands our cluster. We are then also more likely to look at these records again and pick up on new clues. It's a win-win situation.
When you have a difficult problem where you want to use a FAN club you need to follow more specific steps. Here are important steps (not all were covered in this post).
- Ask a specific, focused research question, how can you recognize possible solutions if you don't know the question?
- Get organized. Be prepared to adapt as you go, though.
- Don't forget to keep the source with the notes and the cluster member.
- Analyze what you've found.
Want to learn more about taking great genealogy notes? Check out our signature mini-course.
I hope you've learned enough about the FAN principal/cluster research/collateral research to point you in the right direction. This is a complex but powerful addition to your research skills. I can't cover it fully even in the several blog posts I've written and you really do need to try it and read case studies to really learn how to use it.
(I talk more about how to find a case study, what information to capture, like first and last name, and more in the follow-up post).
Want to learn more about the FAN principal?
I've written a review about one of my favorite genealogy "QuickSheets" about the FAN club principal (The Historical Biographer's Guide to Cluster Research (the FAN Principle).
