Creating One Research Question to Guide Your Family History
When people feel overwhelmed by genealogy, it’s often because they’re trying to answer too many questions at once. I have definitely been guilty of this, especially when I was first getting started with genealogy. I refer to this sometimes as going galaxy brained, when I’m trying to think of too many different things at once. It’s not an effective research strategy!
Genealogy works best with one focused research question—just one part of my starter guide to genealogy.
What Is a Research Question?
A genealogy research question is a clear, specific question you want to answer, such as:
Who were the parents of my maternal grandmother?
Where was my great-grandfather born?
When did my grandmother immigrate?
These questions give your research purpose and direction. Although sometimes we never find direct, infallible proof to answer our questions, we should at least be able to find enough to form a hypothesis in response to them. This allows us to feel we have researched the question from every angle, have our best guess at the answer, and now we can move on to the next question.
Why Focus Matters
Without a clear question, it’s easy to:
Browse records aimlessly
Repeat the same searches
Feel stuck or frustrated
A single question keeps your research manageable and intentional.
What Makes a Good Beginner Question
A strong research question is:
Specific
Focused on one person or event
Answerable with records
Avoid questions that are too broad, like “Where did my family come from?”—there isn’t one answer to that nor does it really direct your research. A better version of that question would be “where was my great grandmother [name] born?” It might not answer your entire broad question, but it’s one piece of the puzzle.
One Question at a Time
Once you’ve answered—or reasonably hypothesized an answer—one question, you can move on to the next.
This step-by-step approach is how genealogists build accurate family histories over time. It’s the building block of all solid, reliable genealogical research. If you are worried about doing genealogy right, this is one of the most important pieces.
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