Research planning is guaranteed to improve the quality of your family history.
Develop your planning skills and learn tools and techniques to prioritise your efforts, reduce duplication, identify tasks that need to be completed and achieve research success.
Follow the family history research process cycle
- Step 1 set goals
- Step 2 scope the problem and information available
- Step 3 identify tasks
- Step 4 conduct new research
- Step 5 review
Articles about research planning for family history
I have a ton of blog posts about research planning, linked below. Let me know if there are other topics you would like covered.
What you need to know when starting family history
Develop research leads and questions:
- Family history research problems: How to get unstuck
- How to make your search for family history sources easier
- Organise your family history. Avoid feeling overwhelmed
- Use genealogy timelines to organise, analyse and improve your research
- Research planning with DNA
- Three ways to generate family history research questions
- Focus your research with research questions
- Asking the right family history research questions
- Find Compiled Family Histories: Beyond Online Trees
- Analysing family history sources:Â Study the repositories
- A reasonably exhaustive search considers alternatives
- Maintain Your Family History: Your Annual Spring Clean
- How many sources do you need?
- How many sources should you use?
- How to research an unfamiliar country in family history
- How to tackle a research problem
- Solve brick walls with the Tree Health Assessment Tool
- Family Tree Health Assessment Tool: Build a Solid Foundation
- Know your family history places
- Research the locations where your family lived
- Analysing family history sources: Study the repositories
- Use mind mapping for research problems
Manage your research:
- Managing your research questions
- Use Excel to track birth, death and marriage records
- Use Excel to Plan and Manage Family History Searches
- How to stop duplicating your research
- How to create a research plan in Excel
- Create a Surname Tree to Organise Your Family History
- Maintain Your Family History: Your Annual Spring Clean
- Create a Master Genealogy Research Plan in Excel
FFANs technique:
(FFANs = Family, Friends, Associates and Neighbours)
- Broaden your genealogy research: How to use the FFANs method
- 5 Reasons to Research Your Extended Family Tree
- Five ways to expand your family history search
- Beyond Your Direct Line: 5 Genealogy Research Strategies
- FFANs in Action: Tracing Captain John Townson’s Origins
- Researching FFANs: How to document a broader search
More information
If you want to read more about my approach to research planning for family history, you might like to read chapter 2 of my book, The Good Genealogist.
Other resources
I provide useful and practical tools to help you with your research. Watch this space, as I will be adding more!
Study with me
You can develop your skills and learn my techniques by studying with me. I run two online research methods courses through the Society of Australian Genealogists.