FAQs

How soon can I expect to solve my genealogy mystery after taking this mini-course?

That is not a question we, or anyone, can answer. There’s no way to know how long it’ll take to solve a genealogy problem. That’s actually why clues, and capturing even the ones you don’t recognize, is so important.

Often what appears to be useless information becomes a usable clue after we find other information (another clue). There’s no way to know what order you’ll find information in or control finding it in the “right” order. Capturing clues, even before you recognize them, gives you the information you’ll need in future. If you don’t capture the clues, you’ll be missing something later.

It’s like dropping a puzzle piece under the couch. You didn’t know where it went so you didn’t notice it was missing until you’ve assembled more pieces. You can’t finish the puzzle until you find that missing piece.

It’s much easier to assemble a puzzle when you put all the pieces on the table. That’s like capturing your clues in your notes. You know where to look for pieces when you’re ready to use them. If you found a puzzle piece on the floor and left it there, you might not find it again, ever. Clues work the same way. When you find them, you want to put them where they go, that’s in your notes.

What am I actually learning to do?

You’re learning an essential skill for every genealogist. That skill is note-taking. Genealogy note-taking isn’t just writing down the name, date, and place you found. There’s so much more to it. Our research often doesn’t even give us names, dates, and places, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t clues in what we did. Noting the Clues teaches you the information you need to put in your notes every time you do research, regardless if you find what you were looking for or not.

Does Noting the Clues teach me how to use clues?

No. This is the first course in the “Your Genealogy Mystery” series. Originally I created the “Clue Decoding Guide” to teach genealogists to use the clues they had. But then I discovered almost no one had the clues I assumed they captured. So I had to back up and create a resource to teach how to capture clues.

It’s really hard to learn to use clues unless you have specific ones to learn about. Once you start capturing clues in your notes, you’ll start having questions you need to answer. When you look for answers to those questions, you’ll learn to use YOUR clues.

What’s the difference in clues and evidence, is this about evidence evaluation, etc.

Most people understand they need clues to solve a mystery. Understanding what genealogy evidence is takes more work. Clues can be genealogy evidence (clues to a solution) or any other kind of clue.

Clues are anything that can help your genealogy. There are elements of evidence evaluation covered in Noting the Clues but that’s not the sole purpose of the mini-course.

You’ve got a genealogy mystery. That means you need clues. Clues are anything that is not useless information, although you may not recognize them as clues, yet. You can still learn to capture them!