Taking Research Notes

I love taking notes. I have certain points of my life where I recorded minute-by-minute notes for myself. Other times, of course, I wish I had taken those details down.

When it comes to researching my family history, I find a general log or diary is a great tool. As I'm looking through my database, I'm often reminded of things I need to do or find out. When I'm researching an individual on the Internet, I get sidetracked by another name or record, so the log helps me backtrack to my original mission. Plus, I can jot down the new name (or whatever) and come back to it later.

All of my log pages have the date at the top. Most of the time, I also write the time next to my entry.

I use my log for all my activities, so at the end of the day, I go back and highlight anything I might need to find quickly, like names and sources, and any to do items get marked and added to my task list.

Some people like the "To Do" feature in their database for this. I like it, too, but I don't always have my database open and ready to view. I like to see all my tasks at once, not just related to genealogy, so I keep all my tasks somewhere else and only open my database when I need to record or review something. Plus, as I mentioned before, I get sidetracked and it's so easy to do when my database is open.

How do you take notes?