Why you need to broaden your family history research
Many of us limit the scope of our family history research to try to make it more manageable. We might trace a limited number of surnames, or rely primarily on birth, death and marriage records, using familiar websites. It feels easy and saves time. But it limits the amount of information we gather and invariably means that our family history is inaccurate.
Better family history is created when we conduct a reasonably exhaustive search and use the best sources available. This means looking broadly enough that conclusions are reached based on good evidence. You can’t do that by conducting narrow research. [1]
So, we need to look more broadly. One well-known way is to research your ancestors’ extended family, friends, associates and neighbours (the FFANs technique) [2]. This post introduces a second, companion technique that I developed: the PETs technique. It gives you a systematic way to research the places, events and themes that shaped your ancestors’ lives.
Note: This post refers to researching an ancestor but the approach can of course be applied to any person you research, even if they are not related to you.
What is the PETs technique?
Definition: The PETs research technique involves researching places, events and themes to gather contextual information and indirect evidence for your family history.
Each element of PETs helps you understand your ancestors in a different way.
Researching places helps you understand where your ancestors lived: the geography, distances, climate and culture.
Researching events helps you understand the historical events that shaped family lives and their decisions. Wars, famines, epidemics, natural disasters and migrations all affected where people lived and when they moved.
Researching themes, such as occupations and military service, helps you understand how your ancestors lived. It may also help you find more sources about them.
Two terms in the definition are worth explaining. Contextual information is background that helps you make sense of a person’s life, even though it doesn’t name them. Indirect evidence is obtained from information that, if accurate, allows you to infer a conclusion. Indirect evidence is sometimes referred to as circumstantial evidence.
PETs research may occasionally give you direct evidence, such as a local history that names your ancestor. But its real value lies in the indirect evidence and contextual information. It also helps you interpret your sources more accurately, and it gives you the detail to enrich your family stories.
Why I developed the PETs technique
Most genealogists already research places, events and themes to some extent. We look up a town in Wikipedia or a gazetteer, read about a war an ancestor served in, or research their occupation. But we tend to do it occasionally or haphazardly, rather than routinely and systematically.
I teach genealogical research methods and I am always looking for tools or techniques to help me explain good research practices. So, I wanted a systematic approach to researching contextual information and indirect evidence, and I needed a catchy and memorable name.
For many years I have been saving my research into three folders on my computer – a places folder, an events folder and a themes folder. Fortunately, the initials formed a short and memorable abbreviation, PETs.
I introduced the PETs technique in my classes and then published it in my book The Good Genealogist (2nd edition, released in September 2026), and it has already helped many people broaden their research in a strategic manner.
How PETs and FFANs work together
The PETs technique is used alongside the FFANs technique. FFANs research looks at the people around your ancestor. PETs research looks at the world around them. Together, they give you a much wider evidence base than either one alone.
The two techniques feed each other. Researching an event your ancestor took part in will usually reveal other people who took part too. Those people become FFANs, with sources that may provide useful information and evidence. Researching a FFAN, in turn, may suggest new places or themes to explore.
When PETs sit beside FFANs in your research plan, you are prompted to ask the same questions about every ancestor, not just the ones with obvious stories.
The PETs rings: start close, expand outwards
Visuals and lists can help you apply the PETs technique systematically.
Imagine your ancestor at the centre, with rings expanding outwards. Start with the places, events and themes in the closest ring, which represent those most closely connected to them. Then move outwards, one ring at a time, until you reach the broader context.
The four rings are:
- Direct participation. Places, events and themes your ancestor was personally involved in.
- Secondary, or nearby. Those connected to their immediate family, or close to where they lived.
- Similar, or transitory. Those they passed through briefly, or that resemble their own experience.
- Contextual, or broad relevance. The wider setting that shaped people in their time and place.
The closer the ring, the more likely it is to give you direct evidence. But don’t discount the outer rings. They often explain why something happened and they can be very useful when you have trouble finding sources which directly mention your ancestor.
Now create lists and add them to your research plans.
Here is an example of how the rings apply to each element of PETs.
| Ring | Places | Events | Themes |
| Direct participation | Where they lived; land they owned; what they built; where they worked; where they studied | Events they took part in, even if the sources don’t name them | Occupations they held; illness that they had; their immigration |
| Secondary, or nearby | Where their family lived; adjoining counties; where their FFANs lived | Events their immediate family took part in; events in their local area | Occupations of their parents; immigration of their parents or grandparents |
| Similar, or transitory | Where they visited; places they travelled through | Broader event types, e.g. military conflict, immigration | Broader occupational themes, such as business |
| Contextual, or broad relevance | The county or country they lived in | Events in their region, country and the wider world | Culture; religion |
Identifying relevant PETs
Researching places, events and themes is more effective if you know which ones are relevant. Here are four ways to find them.
Examine your sources closely and creatively. Every certificate, census and newspaper notice mentions places, dates and occupations. Ask how each one might reveal more useful information about your ancestor.
Use timelines and mind maps. A timeline places your ancestor’s life against the events happening around them. A mind map helps you brainstorm potential connections. [3]
Read histories of the areas they lived in. Local histories and heritage studies describe the industries, disasters and community life that your ancestor would have known. They may also identify places to research. Regional and broader histories can be useful too.
Read newspapers of the time and place. Newspapers show you what people were talking about, from floods and politics, to social occasions and fashions. Don’t limit yourself to just searching newspapers for specific names.
You will also find relevant PETs in your family tree, in the sources and trees of your ancestor’s FFANs, and in maps and photographs. For places, maps showing adjoining counties or countries are especially useful. [4]
Being selective: five questions to ask
Systematic doesn’t mean researching everything. You don’t need to research every place, event or theme, or know everything about those that are relevant. You just need what might be useful for your research.
Focus on the time frame when your family was there, but also look at the period before, in case you can trace them further back.
For each potential PET, ask yourself:
- What is the connection to my ancestor?
- When and where was the connection?
- How could investigating it contribute to my research question or hypothesis?
- What sources may have been produced?
- Where could I find those sources?
If you can’t answer the third question, set that PET aside for now. You can always come back to it.
A worked example: the Saywell family
My 3x great grandfather, George Burleigh Saywell, was an unremarkable man. He appears rarely in the records and I have not found any photographs of him. You probably have many ancestors like him. Here is how the PETs technique helped me learn more about his life.
Places
George was born on 24 May 1842 in Basseville, Pas-de-Calais, in France. That surprised me, as I knew the family were English. His father’s family were Wesleyan framework knitters and lace makers from Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire.
Tracing the family back means moving through the rings. Nottingham sits in the secondary ring as a family place, and the adjoining counties are where earlier generations are likely to be found. Calais sits in both the inner ring, as George was born there, and the transitory ring, because it was a place the family lived in for a short time before moving on.
In Australia, the family settled in East Maitland, north of Sydney, where George’s father became publican of the Red Lion Inn. Researching Maitland helped me understand the community they joined, including its Wesleyan church school, which George would have attended.
George’s half-brother Thomas later became a real estate developer, and developed the suburb of Brighton-le-Sands in Sydney. Real estate plans from the State Library of NSW and photos from a local history on the council website show what that place looked like at the time. George and Thomas both had houses in the suburb and Thomas’ house still stands.
Events
An event that significantly shaped George’s childhood was the 1848 Revolution in France. The family left that year aboard the Agincourt, one of three ships carrying English lace makers fleeing the revolution to Australia. This event explains why a family of English lace makers ended up in the Australian country town of Maitland. Researching it also identifies a whole shipload of FFANs: the other lacemaker families who travelled with them. [5]
Themes
Thomas began work as a tobacco twister in a Maitland tobacco factory. I had no idea what a tobacco twister was and I knew that the family was well-known in the tobacco industry, so I researched it and found newspaper articles that described the process. In 1874 Thomas opened Saywell’s Eagle Tobacco Factory in Sydney, and George and his brothers joined him. Researching the colonial tobacco industry gave me a picture of George’s working life that his own records never could.
A second theme, coal mining, was also relevant to my research. The father of Thomas and George started by carting coal and owned a share in a coal mine near Maitland. Thomas later invested in multiple coal mines. George worked as a coal miner in Newcastle and, from 1900, helped Thomas at the coke works at the South Clifton mine.
More information about the Saywell family is available: [6]
Planning and documenting PETs research
Add your PETs and FFANs to your research plan so that they are integrated with your other research objectives and questions. Identify specific questions, hypotheses and tasks. For a large topic that is relevant to multiple families, such as an industry or a migration scheme, a separate project plan may be appropriate.
Where possible, include your findings in your family history software and online trees. However, they are built around individuals and family groups, so you may find that information about a place, event or theme doesn’t fit neatly into these tools. In such cases, you will need separate documentation. Aim for a consistent structure, as much as possible.
Good research notes are important, to guide further research and inform the conclusions you reach based on your research. Record what you found, where you found it and how it relates to the people in your tree. Then link those notes to each relevant person.
The Good Genealogist (Book 1, Chapter 5: Document) sets out several options for doing this, including the use of the Notion app. Book 2, The Good Genealogist Tools Book, provides detailed instructions on using Notion for family history.
You might also find it useful to write up your PETs research as stories or blog posts. Examples can be found on my other website, Rustenivy.
Getting started, and where to learn more
You don’t need to apply the PETs technique to your whole tree at once. Choose one ancestor you’re stuck on. Write down one place, one event and one theme from their life, starting in the direct ring. Then ask the five questions and add the most promising ones to your research plan.
The PETs technique is one of the research methods I teach in The Good Genealogist. Book 1 explains how PETs and FFANs fit into a complete research process. The Tools Book includes a step-by-step process for researching places.
I’m also developing a tool to use with AI that helps you identify relevant FFANs and PETs for your own research question. Subscribe to my blog to be notified when the instructions for this tool are published.
References
[1] see The Genealogy Standards and The Good Genealogist 2nd edition pp. 48-49
[2] QuickLesson 11: Identity Problems & the FAN Principle | Evidence Explained, The Good Genealogist 2nd edition pp 53-57; Beyond Your Direct Line: 5 Genealogy Research Strategies
[3] Mind mapping for research problems – Generations Genealogy
[4] The FamilySearch map collection is a good place to start if you are researching England.
[5] Lacemakers of Calais website
[6] Blog post Rustenivy,. See also the Wikipedia article about Thomas Saywell , but note that some of that information, such as their Huguenot origins, is not supported by sufficient evidence.
Thanks Danielle, this has been very timely and extremely helpful.