Research and Sources
Research is not collecting everything ever written about a person. It is answering a focused question with evidence strong enough to support the account you want to write. A good source log does more than list websites: it records where each claim came from and how much weight it can bear.
Start with a question
A research question turns a subject into an inquiry. “Everything about my grandfather” is not a question. “How did my grandfather's work at the railway yard shape the way he talks about safety?” is. A focused question tells you which sources matter and which can be left out.
| Too broad | More focused | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| Who was Mara Chen? | How did Mara Chen persuade the council to fund the community garden? | Names a problem, a context and a line of evidence. |
| What was life like in the 1970s? | How did one family's move to a new suburb change their daily routines? | Narrows the period and the perspective. |
| What did my grandmother do? | What did her working life reveal about the opportunities available to women in her town? | Connects a life to a wider context. |
| Why is this person important? | How did this person's work change the way a local service was run? | Makes “importance” specific and arguable. |
Primary and secondary sources
| Type | Definition | Examples | Use and caution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary | Material produced at the time or by a participant. | Diaries, letters, photographs, interviews, minutes, objects, public records. | Close to experience, but shaped by the moment and the maker. |
| Secondary | Material that interprets, summarises or analyses primary material. | Histories, biographies, articles, documentaries, museum labels. | Provides context and synthesis, but may repeat errors. |
| Tertiary | Reference works that summarise secondary material. | Encyclopaedias, dictionaries, timelines. | Useful for orientation, weak as sole evidence. |
The same item can be primary for one question and secondary for another. A 1980 newspaper article is primary evidence of how the event was reported at the time, but secondary evidence of what happened.
Evaluating a source
| Question | Why it matters | What to record |
|---|---|---|
| Who made it? | Authorship shapes perspective and access. | Name, role and relationship to the subject. |
| When was it made? | Contemporaneous and later accounts do different work. | Date or approximate date. |
| For what purpose? | A celebration, a legal record and a private letter have different aims. | Genre and occasion. |
| For whom? | Audience shapes what can be said and how. | Public, private, official or family audience. |
| What is the context? | Historical conditions shape what is recorded and what is omitted. | Place, institution and period. |
| Can it be corroborated? | A single source may be mistaken or interested. | Other sources that support or conflict. |
| What is missing? | Silences can be as revealing as statements. | People, places or events not mentioned. |
Where to look
| Source | What it can show | Limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Family collections | Photographs, letters, objects and oral memory. | Selective, undated and sometimes disputed. |
| Local library | Local histories, newspapers, directories and reference works. | Coverage varies and catalogues can be incomplete. |
| Archive or records office | Minutes, correspondence, registers and official files. | May require appointments and careful handling. |
| Newspaper archive | Dated reports, photographs and public debate. | Shaped by editorial priorities and deadlines. |
| Public records | Births, deaths, marriages, land, employment and migration. | Official categories may not match lived experience. |
| Organisation records | Membership, minutes, events and correspondence. | May be closed, incomplete or written for internal purposes. |
| Maps and plans | Place, movement and change over time. | Need interpretation and dating. |
| Photographs | People, dress, work, place and relationships. | Framing, posing and missing context. |
| Interviews | Testimony, voice and interpretation. | Memory, rapport and question design. |
| Approved digital collections | Digitised records and curated context. | Search results are not the same as the whole archive. |
Source log
Record each source while you use it, not afterwards. A source log should let another person find the material and understand why you trusted it.
| Field | What to record |
|---|---|
| Source number | A short label such as S1, S2 or S3. |
| Creator and title | Who made it and what it is called. |
| Type | Letter, photograph, interview, newspaper article, public record, history. |
| Date | Exact date, approximate date or “undated”. |
| Location | Archive, library, website or personal collection, with a stable reference. |
| What it says | Two or three sentences in your own words. |
| Useful detail | A short quotation, page number or image detail. |
| Reliability note | Who made it, why, and what needs checking. |
| Links or conflicts | Which other sources support or contradict it. |
Following a lead
Suppose you are researching a fictional community centre called Harbour Lights. A plaque says it opened in 1985. A council report from 1984 says the building was “expected to be ready for the summer program”. A newspaper article from 1985 describes a fundraising morning tea. An interview with a former coordinator recalls that the centre opened “the year of the big storm”.
| Step | What you do | What you learn |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Check the plaque and the council report. | The building was planned before 1985 but the opening date is not settled. |
| 2 | Find the newspaper report. | It gives a date and a public account of the opening period. |
| 3 | Ask the former coordinator which storm they mean. | The memory may link the opening to a later event. |
| 4 | Look for a dated photograph or program. | A program can provide a specific date and names. |
| 5 | Write a qualified sentence. | “The centre probably opened in 1985, although one recollection places it earlier.” |
Gaps and silences
Archives are not neutral. They preserve what institutions considered important, what someone had the resources to keep, and what survived. A missing record does not prove that nothing happened. It may mean that the event was not officially recorded, that the record was lost, that the person was excluded from the categories used, or that the family chose not to keep it. Ask why a gap exists before filling it with invention.
- Who is missing from the record, and why?
- Which voices were not invited to speak?
- What would change if the missing perspective were available?
- Can you describe the gap without pretending to fill it?
- Have you asked whether the subject wants a private matter left out?
Fact-checking checklist
- Every proper name is spelled consistently and checked against a source.
- Every date is supported or clearly marked as approximate.
- Direct quotations can be traced to a source and are copied accurately.
- Numbers, places and job titles have been checked.
- At least one claim has been corroborated by an independent source.
- Conflicting accounts are acknowledged rather than averaged.
- Images have a source, date and permission status.
- Private information has been removed unless there is consent and a reason to include it.
Common errors
- Collecting without a question. More material does not automatically make a better account.
- Trusting the first search result. Search ranking is not evidence of reliability.
- Using a source without provenance. If you cannot say where it came from, you cannot weigh it.
- Quoting out of context. A sentence can change meaning when the surrounding material is removed.
- Ignoring the archive's logic. Records were made by institutions with their own priorities.
- Filling gaps with invention. Uncertainty is part of the research and should be visible.
- Leaving citations until the end. Details get lost and accidental plagiarism becomes more likely.
Next, decide how to shape the material through structure and chronology.