29 August 2014 Contrary to the old cliché, facts do not speak for themselves. Facts are chameleons whose shape and color reflect their handlers. A beginning researcher and a skilled one can read the same information in a record and draw two separate conclusions, based upon ...

27 August 2014 Biographical research is always a gamble. Our person of interest may or may not have been literate. Among those who were, many created few records to document their existence. The records we expect to find for a place and time will likely have suffered some destruction.

25 August 2014 Is it an acronym or an initialism? Do you know the difference? Does it matter? ...

23 August 2014 Amazon reviews of a certain book on research methodology contain a cross-fire between the author and someone who claims the author plagiarized his work. The author's defense might be summed up this way ...

14 August 2014 Researchers are expected to learn the conventions of each area in which they work. They need to learn not only the records, but also the ...

21 August 2014 "Ibid." is a tidy little convention we see in all sorts of published citations—but never, ever, should we use it ...

12 August 2014 Proof is not a document. It’s a body of evidence. As biographers or historians of whatever ilk, we do not ‘prove’ a point by discovering a record that asserts something. That assertion could be wrong. If so, any further work we do on the basis of that misinformation will likely be wrong or irrelevant. Not even ...

16 August 2014 Evidence is messy. Because it is a mental construct, it rarely gives us the clear and simple answers that we seek. Sources, by contrast, are physical: we can touch them, see them, smell them, hear them. ...

18 August 2014 It happens so often. A researcher cites a census—typically accessed online, these days—but does not cite the online provider. Does it matter?

10 August 2014 Here's a six-step plan for finding a 'core truth' in lore or tradition. It works. Every time. ...