HSP105

Sources of information

Miss W. Family History Course ,
First page of letter re Ann JACKSON

Since beginning the course we have been told about the importance of collecting primary source data. Our second video this week was by Stefan Petrow about primary and secondary sources. Here are my notes.

Approach your sources with a set of questions in mind – on the trail of a problem

Seven steps to good research

  1. Ask right questions
  2. Find relevant documents
  3. Search in documents
  4. Taking notes by summarizing or quoting
  5. Writing arguments or stories from info
  6. Position yourself in relation to what others have written
  7. Draft, edit and revise to produce polished piece of historical prose

Fun lies in finding interesting information, continually finding more questions and documents

Don’t ignore evidence that is not what you expect to find

Primary Sources

First hand accounts of an event and created during time event took place or created retrospectively by a participant in the event

Best form of evidence is original document or record – next can be scanned or microfilmed or photocopy of original

Seven categories of primary sources

  1. Family
  2. Public
  3. Institutional
  4. Newspaper and post office directories
  5. Non written sources
  6. Physical evidence
  7. Oral history

Newspapers often secondary source as journalist not always at the event

Basic questions to ask re primary sources

  1. Where and when was record made – published or personal
  2. Who made it
  3. For what purpose – official or personal
  4. Did info come from someone with personal knowledge of facts
  5. What conventions exist that shape info – church vs tax lists vs census
  6. Reason for informant to provide inaccurate info – bias
  7. Corroborating testimony

As family historians weigh evidence – don’t blindly accept information – evaluate and record sources – trace back to primary record

John Tosh’s book about history – research carefully and systematically, gather lots of information from lots of sources

Secondary sources

Written after the event – sometimes based on primary sources

Provide background information relating to life or period of time in your families life.

Questions re secondary sources

  1. Who is author – claim to expertise – do they have bias
  2. Book or article for general audience or scholarly work – sources clearly set out
  3. Claim of author, interpretation or range of evidence

Footnotes are most important to cite your sources for future generations and researchers

The primary source used for the image above was found at the National Archives of Ireland in June 2014. I used the “Outrage papers of Donegal for 1847” looking for any reference to my JACKSON family.

For my readers: What has been the most unusual primary source you have found with information relating to your family history research?

What is a repository?

Miss W. Family History Course , , ,

Research
Photo Credit: Anders Sandberg via Compfight

We are now into week 3 of the family history course and we are about to start planning our major research. As I listened to Dianne Snowden’s lecture about repositories and records, I made some notes and here they are.

What is a repository?

Library, archives, museums, family history society

Cora Num’s website has lots of links to different repositories and record sites globally and locally

Some examples of Australian repositories

National Library of Australia –includes online catalogue to search,  eResources and link to Trove – digitized newspapers

National Archives of Australia – Commonwealth government records from 1901, defence records, photo search, name search

State archives – state Government departments

Repositories including other countries

Australian Joint Copying Project – material from Australia, NZ and Pacific from 1560 to 1984

Family Search – put together by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

List of family history societies in Australia from Cora Num website

Federation of Family history societies in UK

Ancestry – where we will get a one month access soon

 Other record sources

  • To make the most of your research time, you need to know what is kept where.  Always do your homework – what are you looking for and where will you find it
  • Reminder that an index is only a guide – find copy of original record
  • Information only as accurate as the informant gives eg relative better than funeral director

BDM records and indexes – start with yourself and work backwards

FreeBMD – UK site

Graham Jaunay has a guide to what you will find on BDM certificates in each state of Australia

Cora Num – lots of links for Australia BDM records

Electoral Rolls and census records in Australia

Photographs – Jane Shrimpton blog on dating photos

To my readers:

What other record sources have you used especially if it is for countries other than Australia?

 

Getting ready for interview

Miss W. Family History Course ,
Mum, myself and Aunty Marg

Just spent a great hour or so listening to a series of video recordings about how to organize, structure and run an interview. Here are my notes.

Preparing for interview

  • Make them comfortable – their favourite place – kitchen table etc
  • Try to have microphone etc as not noticeable
  • Time of day that works for them – mind is agile rather than after meal or relaxing time

Structuring interview

  • Start interview with a questionnaire by Paul Thompson*
  • Begin with their childhood then progress to parents and grandparents – reminisces lead to more things they remembered
  • Listen to what is being said as more clues will be given to allow further research using other resources

Interviewing techniques

  • Be attentive, listen carefully to ask more questions for clarification
  • Not too long
  • Importance of listening to interview – identify new questions for next interview
  • Bring copies of newspaper etc to next interview re event discussed
  • Use photographs for more info

Life as a narrative

  • As we get older our life becomes a story
  • Allow people to tell own story in own time
  • Ask questions at later interviews – get these from early interviews
  • These questions important to you not necessarily the person you are interviewing
  • Patient, respectful and alert when asking about traumatic incidents

Oral history as part of family history research

  • This began mainly in the 1970s
  • This may not be history – people’s memories might include imagination as well
  • Documents vs oral history
  • Everything is an interpretation of the past
  • Use photographs to jog memory then find newspapers, documents etc for further comparison
  • Oral history important part of some cultures like Torres Strait Islanders and aborigines

*Paul Thompson, The Voice of the Past: Oral History, Oxford University Press, 2000.

Reflection: I hadn’t really thought about all the points mentioned in these recordings. I generally just go in like a bull at a gate asking questions and not developing a structure for the interview. But really mine are often related to a photo my aunt or mother has shown me and so is not an organized interview at all, just a chit chat about a photo.

Question: What is going to be the hardest part of the interview process?