Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Review - "QuickSheet: The Historical Biographer's Guide to the Research Process"

The Genealogical Publishing Company in Baltimore has published another in its series of "QuickSheet" laminated research guides - this time for The Historical Biographer's Guide to the Research Process by Elizabeth Shown Mills.

This QuickSheet booklet has four laminated pages on one 11" x 17" paper (folded). They are designed to give the user the basic guidelines for genealogy research in the allotted space, and provide an overview of the facts a researcher needs to know in order to begin and proceed successfully with research in the subject.



The QuickSheet: The Historical Biographer's Guide to the Research Process folder has these subjects:


* Basic Principles

*  Your Research Report
*  The Research Process Model - including Preparation, Performance, Evaluation and Reporting stages
*  The Research Analysis Model - Sources, Information and Evidence
*  The Identity Triangulation Model - Persona, Relationships, and Origin
*  The Reliability Model - the Principle, and Qualities That Should Be Met (with criteria of Problem analysis, Research, Documentation, Record Analysis, Correlation, Conflict Resolution and Explanation of Evidence and Conclusions).

This booklet is designed primarily for the historical biographer who is trying to reach conclusions and establish proof with a level of absolute confidence.  
It provides a summary of the fundamentals of performing genealogical and family history research in the USA.  The information included in this QuickSheet embraces the well-known Genealogical Proof Standard, and extends the user's knowledge by offering four specific research process models to help the researcher reach rational conclusions.

For someone like me that teaches and talks about genealogy a bit, the QuickSheet format is invaluable because I can pull it out and provide some guidance to my student or colleague interested in the subject.

The beauty of these "QuickSheet" folders is that they are very light and portable in a briefcase or laptop case. They are fixtures in my research case.

This four-page laminated booklet costs $8.95, plus postage and handling (4th Class Mail $5.50; FedEx Ground Service in the USA, $7.50). You can order it through the Genealogical  Store, or use the link for the QuickSheet: The Historical Biographer's Guide to the Research Process and click on the "Add to Cart" link. 



The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/02/review-quicksheet-historical.html


Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2012.

Disclosure: Genealogical.com contacted me recently and asked me to provide a review of this booklet. They mailed me a review copy for my personal use as remuneration for this review.

2 comments:

Ed said...

Is this a summary of a larger work that might be of interest?

Helen Wright said...

I'd love to find somewhere to buy this in the UK...