Lisa Louise Cooke
Mark Tucker
Episode 20: Navigating Your Research with Mark Tucker and the GPS
If you’re new to research you may hear some terms that you’re not familiar with. This is the ideal time to start getting familiar with them because it may save you going back and re-doing some of your hard work later down the road.
If you’re an experienced researcher, you may already have had some experience with the GPS. But even if you have, you likely haven’t heard it quite like this. My very special guest is Mark Tucker of the ThinkGenealogy blog at thinkgenealogy.com. Mark is a software architect by day and an avid genealogist evenings and weekend. And it’s safe to say Mark has a passion for genealogy and he brings his computing expertise to genealogy in some pretty exciting ways, most recently by process mapping the Genealogical Proof Standard – the GPS – into a visual aid that will help you navigate your way to a successful family tree.
In our first segment Mark tells us how he got started using the Genealogical Proof Standard, why he created the GPS map, and what it will do for you to improve your genealogy research. Then he gives us an overview of the Genealogical Proof Standard and the various tools that go along with it.
In our second segment we talk about how the GPS map can be effectively used for breaking down your research brick walls.
Related Links:
Transcript
The Mail Box:
Listener Tina Kelly wrote in to share her experience visiting a Family History Center in the United Kingdom after listening to episodes 17, 18 and 19, my series on how to tap into the vast resources of the Family History Centers around the world.
The Genealogical Proof Standard:
The BCG Standards Manual
Last month I attended the Family History Expo held in St. George, Utah and I had a chance to catch up with a friend of mine, Mark Tucker who writes the Think Genealogy blog. Mark has a passion for genealogy and the energy to match it.
His current passion is the Genealogical Proof Standard which is genealogy research process outlined in the BCG Genealogical Standards Manual. BCG stands for the Board of Certification of Genealogists, and it’s an internationally recognized organization that certifies qualified genealogists who meet their standards.
The idea behind the GPS is that it provides standards generally accepted in the field of genealogy research. Historically the GPS has been thought of in conjunction with professional genealogists. But more and more it is being used by family historians everywhere who want to do a quality job of climbing their family tree.
The Genealogical Proof Standard is really like a process map, it maps out the proven steps that a good genealogist takes to answer their family tree questions.
Proof is a fundamental concept in genealogy. In order for your research to really be accurate and dependable, each conclusion you reach about an ancestor must have sufficient credibility to be considered as proven. To make sure that conclusions you come to about your family are accurate they really need to meet standards of the Genealogical Proof Standard (The GPS). The GPS consists of five major criteria:
- You have to be sure that you have conducted a reasonably exhaustive search.
- You need to have complete and accurate source citations.
- You need to do the analysis and correlation of the information that you’ve found. It’s not just enough to find a fact, you have to look at it within the context of all of the fact and make sure that it fits together in a way that really makes sense.
- If that analysis brings to light the fact that there are conflicts when you put your data together, then your next step is to go back and work to resolve any conflicting evidence. You’ll want to look for additional resources to solve the question at hand.
- You need to be able to write a sound, reasoned, and coherent conclusion. If you can summarize your findings in a way that makes sense and you can show your proof you know that you’re in good shape and your hard work meets the Genealogical Proof Standard.
The GPS is not just a tool for professional genealogists, but it’s also a tool for you and your research. It actually makes a lot of sense, and it’s pretty simple when you break it down into the 5 basic steps
- Conduct a reasonably exhaustive search;
- Document complete and accurate source citations;
- Analyze and correlate all of the collected information;
- Resolve any conflicting evidence;
- Write a sound reasoned, and coherent conclusion.
Now as promised I’ve got some great GPS resources for you.
First download Mark’s Genealogy Research Process Chart at his blog at Thinkgenealogy.com.
Mark also has a Powerpoint presentation on his website called Navigating Research with the GPS that you will find helpful as well.
Click on the links above in the Links column.
And if you’d like to get a copy of the BCG Genealogical Standards Manual I’ll have a link for that as well on the episode webpage. When you buy it through that link you are also helping to support this free podcast so I thank you very much for that.
Tell All Your Friends!
If you’re enjoying the show and I hope you are then be sure and encourage your friends to check it out. It’s all about sharing what you know, and connecting with your family history as well as other folks doing genealogy research. I hope you’ll pass this on.
Get Even More Genealogy
If you have a hankerin’ for even more genealogy, check out my other family history podcast called the Genealogy Gems Podcast which you can find at my GenealogyGems.TV website. In addition to two free podcasts, you’ll find genealogy videos, the Genealogy Gems News Blog and you can sign up for my free e-newsletter to keep up to date on everything going on!
