Asking the right family history research questions

You probably have hundreds of questions about your family history that you want answers for, but you cannot work on them all at once.

How do you decide which question to pursue first and are you asking the right research questions?

Find the meaning of a family history research question

If you already have questions, and I am sure you do, here are some questions about your questions. They will help you work out if you have the right questions and which ones need to be answered first.

• Why do you need to answer this question? What information will it reveal?
• How is it important is that information to your research?
• Will it fill a gap in your family tree or your knowledge?
• Will it provide vital information to allow you to move back another generation?
• Will it resolve an inconsistency or clarify something important?
• Will it solve a mystery?
• Or is it just something that you find interesting?

If you cannot answer these questions, then perhaps you do not have right questions. Jump down to the Goals section below. Write or review your goals first, then write new questions.

Prioritise your research questions

Knowing why questions need to be answered does not just help you ask the right questions, it also helps you determine which questions are more important and which need to be answered first.

In family history research you will often have a chain of questions. As one is answered, it opens up more. Or, it may be that you need to answer some questions first before you can find the answers to related questions.

Getting your questions into the right order will save you time and help you progress your research more accurately.

Prioritising questions is all about creating a systematic order which you then apply to your research.

Target your research questions to achieve your goals

If the questions listed above are not enough to help you prioritise your questions, then you need to revisit your goals.

Goals are broad aims or areas of interest. They tend to take more than a year to achieve.

Goals provide context and meaning to our research questions.

Examples of goals

• I’d like to get my family tree back as far as I can in time
• I’d like to explore the families of my early convicts and settlers
• My father was adopted – I’d like to trace his biological family

Group your questions under the relevant goal. A goal is relevant to your question if answering that question will help you achieve the goal. A question can be relevant to more than one goal.

Work out which goal is the most important to you at the moment and then focus on the questions listed below it.

For more of my articles about planning your family history, go to the Plan page.

Post last updated 30 April 2025