Iam fortunate enough to be asked to undertake research for a number of TV programmes such as BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? as well as for various historical organisations. This interesting role has largely come about because of my knowledge of British maritime history as well as my expertise in researching the lives of our seafaring ancestors. There are a number of lessons that I’ve learned along the way and I thought it might be helpful and interesting to share them.
Do you have the time?
When asked to help, the first thing that I always do is to assess the urgency of the request. I have literally been phoned during filming to ‘double check a few facts’, but most of the time the deadline is not that urgent. It is important, though, to be clear at the outset about how soon an answer is expected and to be certain that I can meet that expectation. Some projects operate to really tight timetables.
Occasionally, people will phone me with a question, but usually they contact me via email. One of the disadvantages of email is that an
