Family Tree UK

HOW TO BUILD A research plan

Why use a research plan?

You may be wondering why a research plan is a useful thing to have or use, especially if you’ve never used one before. In short, a research plan helps give your searches focus, clarity and direction. It helps you to think through a clear strategy and to execute on that strategy without getting lost on the way. It will save you time. It can save you money. Most importantly, it will improve your chances of success!

Seven steps to building your research plan

I use a seven-step approach to building a research plan :

1. Define your research objective

2. Build a timeline of known information

3. Identify the gap(s) in the timeline

4. Refine your research objective

5. Brainstorm sources (online and in archives)

6. Organise source list by priority & location

7. Write your plan

Let’s look in detail at each step in turn.

1. Define Your Research Objective

To find an answer, you must first have a clear question. So, our first step is to be as specific as possible about what we’re trying to discover. Write down as complete and specific a description of your research question as you can, including details of NAMES, likely PLACES and possible DATE ranges.

• NAME: Do you know the name or names

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