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Research Log

This research log is adapted from the one produced by the Family History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  It can be printed from the SourceGuide CD-ROM, and is available at church Family History Centers.

Instructions on filling out fields:

  • Ancestor's Name:  It's a good idea to write in the last name, then the given name.  This makes it easier to find one individual's log in a large stack.
  • Objective:  Is your goal to find the individual's birth date, marriage place, or father?
  • Locality:  If you're going to search many records for an individual, it might be a good idea to separate the logs by locality.
  • Date of Search:  Remember to fill in what day you searched the record.
  • Location/Call #:  The location is the library or other repository where you found the record.  The call number could be a book call number, a microfilm number, or a computer number.  Please specify.
  • Description of Source:  All bibliographical information on the source.
  • Comments:  Here you can type the search objective ("Francis Ritchey's birth date"), the results of the search ("Found Francis Ritchey's mother's name"), or the years and names searched ("searched 1740-1789; searched Francis or Frantz Ritchey, Ritchie, Richey, Richie, Ritschy, Ritschi").  It is VERY important to be very detailed here, especially regarding the variant spellings you search.   As you gain experience, you will accumulate variant spellings for each surname.   You need to record variants you search in each record because two years from now, when you review the search you made on a certain source, you want to be able to see if you checked all the variants you currently know.  For instance, I began my research in 1993 with four or five variant spellings for the Ritchey surname.  Now I know over sixteen.  If I hadn't recorded the name variants I'd searched for each source, think how many sources I'd now have to search over! 
  • Doc. Number:  This is a number you assign to the photocopies you make of each document you find.  For instructions on numbering your documents, return to the lesson.

 

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Research Log
Ancestor's name:
Objective: Locality:
Date of
Search		 Location/
Call #		 Description of Source
(Author, Title, Year)		 Comments
(Purpose of search, results, years and names searched)		 Doc.
Number