The War Career of RAF Flight Sergeant Leonard Isherwood
Seeing the Wood for the Trees | The How-To Genealogy Blog
by Phil Isherwood
2y ago
In my previous article Researching WWII RAF Bomber Crew – The Tragic Story of Leonard Isherwood (familyhistory.car.blog/2021/04/20/researching-wwii-raf-bomber-crew-the-tragic-story-of-leonard-isherwood/) I explained how I had gone about researching the life and war career of my relation Leonard Isherwood despite not being entitled to have access to his service record. This article tells Leonard’s story… Introduction Leonard Isherwood was ..read more
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Researching WWII RAF Bomber Crew – The Tragic Story of Leonard Isherwood
Seeing the Wood for the Trees | The How-To Genealogy Blog
by Phil Isherwood
3y ago
When I first started researching my family history I spent time with to my parents collecting as many family stories as I could. In one conversation with my Dad, he told me that my grandfather had a cousin in the RAF who had been killed early in WWII “on a leaflet raid over Germany”. Dad ..read more
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Goodbye 2020 – Why It Was My Crazy Genealogy Year
Seeing the Wood for the Trees | The How-To Genealogy Blog
by Phil Isherwood
3y ago
Looking back on 2020, I’m put in mind of Charles Dickens’ opening of A Tale of Two Cities. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…” (A Tale of Two Cities, para. 1, line 1) Never before in my lifetime has a single year resonated so strongly to these words. What a strange, crazy year it has been. The pandemic, of course, has been the central thread wo ..read more
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Four Genealogy Books That Will Improve Your Research
Seeing the Wood for the Trees | The How-To Genealogy Blog
by Phil Isherwood
3y ago
Christmas is coming and I always have a list of genealogy books to pass to Santa’s Little Helper (a.k.a. Mrs Phil). Having spent over a year writing about genealogy methodology and research techniques in this very blog, I wanted to share with you what I believe are the four best books on the subject. WordPress kindly tells me that approximately 50% of my readers are from North America and the other 50% are from UK, Europe and Australasia, so I have chosen two by American authors which are available on both sides of the Atlantic and two more by British authors which deserve a wider readership ..read more
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Understanding Genealogical Sources
Seeing the Wood for the Trees | The How-To Genealogy Blog
by Phil Isherwood
3y ago
Photo by Wendy van Zyl on Pexels.com When I studied history at school I was introduced to the concept of sources. There were exactly three types: Primary Source “An artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time under study. It serves as an original source of information about the topic.” Primary source, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_source, accessed 23rd August 2020. Secondary Source “A document or recording that relates or discusses information originally presented elsewhere.” Secondary sou ..read more
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How to Build a Research Plan
Seeing the Wood for the Trees | The How-To Genealogy Blog
by Phil Isherwood
4y ago
This picture by unknown author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND Research can be defined as “a detailed study of a subject, especially in order to discover (new) information or reach a (new) understanding“ https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/research As family historians, we are constantly trying to discover new information and reach new understandings – it is inherent in what we do. But how should we go about uncovering new information if it isn’t easily available in the sources that we are familiar with and have to hand? With so many possible sources to choose from, identifying ..read more
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What is Proof?
Seeing the Wood for the Trees | The How-To Genealogy Blog
by Phil Isherwood
4y ago
The end goal of all genealogical investigations is to establish proof, by which we mean a convincing, credible case for a specific ancestral identity, relationship, or life event. By thorough research in sources, we must find sufficient detailed, matching evidence to uncover and reconstruct relationships and events relating to our research target, and only our research target. But how do we decide when an accumulation of evidence reaches a threshold that we call proof? How do we define it? How do we decide when it has been met? How do we assess what others have proposed as proof? Is there just ..read more
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Linking Genealogical Evidence: A Method – Part 2
Seeing the Wood for the Trees | The How-To Genealogy Blog
by Phil Isherwood
4y ago
Being able to accurately and reliably link evidence from different sources to the same individual is a key skill which all family historians need to learn and master. In part 1 we looked the five factors which underpin evidence linkage: Uniqueness Community Size Distance Time Difference Contradictory Evidence In this concluding part we look at how to assess linkage strength and subject it to rigorous tests. Assessing Linkage Strength Once you have assigned High/Medium/Low assessments to the five factors, it’s time to look at all the scores and make an overall judgement about t ..read more
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The Art of Linking Genealogical Evidence
Seeing the Wood for the Trees | The How-To Genealogy Blog
by Phil Isherwood
4y ago
Being able to accurately and reliably link evidence from different sources to the same individual is a key skill which all family historians need to learn and master. But there is very little writing out there to help people learn how to do this – and the vast number of poorly reasoned linkages in member trees at Ancestry and elsewhere is testament to the need for broader discussion on this topic. Linking evidence from two different sources to the same person is one of those tasks in genealogy that is fundamental, it underpins the collection and collation of all evidence and is essentia ..read more
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What is Evidence?
Seeing the Wood for the Trees | The How-To Genealogy Blog
by Phil Isherwood
4y ago
Sources, documents, records, data, facts, information, evidence. They’re similar terms and we family historians sometimes use them more loosely than we should. Of all these terms, the most vital, and perhaps the least well understood, is evidence. We all have implicit notions of what constitutes evidence, but it has a precise meaning in genealogy which is not well understood. Knowing how to clearly define, classify, group and use genealogical evidence is an essential skill for all family historians. A Definition I searched for definitions of “evidence” according to various genealogic ..read more
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