PERSI as a Finding Aid for a Genealogical Literature Search

The search for genealogical sources can be a series of Sunday drives through country roads. Meandering here and there may be scenic or annoying when stuck in the mud of an old road.

Planning the research with a map and a trip diary gives better odds for preferred scenery, avoiding the costly ruts.


Genealogical maps are not limited to geographic topology, government or religious jurisdictions, newspaper coverage or neighborhoods of the historic time period.There is also the evolutionary map of which sources still exist in what form and with what access. Methodically collecting potential sources, prioritizing what may be most helpful and keeping track of the results helps refine the goals and expedite the process.

That doesn't preclude taking some impromptu Sunday drives. Finding Aids for genealogical research can still be found outside the beaten path.

It's just that starting with a scatter gun approach is less productive than beginning with a map of traditional resources like PERSI.

Who/What is PERSI? The PERiodical Source Index. Kimberly Powell gives a nice overview on About.com.


Note that PERSI provides an index to millions of genealogical and historical articles. Though primarily for genealogy articles in English speaking countries, the coverage spans two centuries of articles and even earlier families.

PERSI is a project maintained by The Allen County Public Library. Any PERSI article may be ordered for a nominal fee.  PERSI charges $7.50 per order of up to 6 article requests and just 20 cents per page.

A Wish List style bibliography from Finding Aids like PERSI can be honed by process of elimination with  information from other Finding Aids.

The PERSI index and search depth has limitations. It pays to explore other Finding Aids to zero in on what resources are most likely to produce results.


Negative results are important to document at any stage.

For example, if I use the Heritage Quest library version of PERSI to search on just the surname Barrett, I get 486 results.

I am specifically interested in the Barretts of Bedford, New York. When I add Bedford to the search key word criteria, I get no results.

If I change the Bedford criteria to Westchester (Bedford's county), I get one article:
Title of Article:        Barrett family, Westchester co., NY
Periodical:        Pioneer Heritance Larchmont, NY: Winter 1969. Vol. 6, Iss. 2

If I change the key word criteria to New York, I get 4 results:
1.              D. M. Barrett-M. J. Ollis marriage note, m. 1882, SC
York County Genealogical and Historical Society Quarterly. Rock Hill SC: Sep 2005. Vol. 17 Iss. 2
2.              Putnam-Barrett-Streeter mystery, NY
Genealogical Journal of Jefferson County, New York. Boise ID: Mar 1993. Vol. 5 Iss. 1
3.              Joseph Bradford Barrett family, NY
Early Settlers of New York State-Their Ancestors and Descendants. Akron NY: Oct 1939. Vol. 6 Iss. 4
4.              Stephen Barrett tombstone, 1832, NY
New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. New York NY: Oct 1871. Vol. 2 Iss. 4

PERSI searches do not provide results for the Barrett surname when NY is used as a keyword, even though the above article titles include the NY abbreviation.

New York abstracts and family tradition placed the original Barrett immigrant in both Connecticut and Yonkers, New York before a 1686 Bedford, New York land reference. Neither CT nor Yonkers as a keyword  yields any results, yet one result does come up with the keyword Connecticut that includes CT in the title.

1.

Moses Barrett married Mary Dow, CT Connecticut Nutmegger. Glastonbury CT: Sep 1987. Vol. 20 Iss. 2

Apparently the periodical name is indexed but the article title is not completely indexed even in its abbreviated form. Be forewarned about such PERSI indexing and search limitations.


Meanwhile, as a result of a ruminating Sunday drive with Barbara Mathews, The Demanding Genealogist - I was warned that my questions about the purported European origin of the Barretts of Bedford, New York quacked like a Gustave Anjou duck! I found no listing of the Barretts in known Anjou forgeries. I did not find a Barrett genealogy for the family in question in the Family History Library catalog.

What I did find in the Bedford Barrett family archives was a note about Anjou as the author of a Barrett genealogy and then voila! The previously undiscovered Anjou fraud in a bound typescript.

OK, so the Bedford Barrett suspect European origins are an Anjou forgery. Now what?

Barrett searches with Bedford, Westchester, New York and Connecticut had not yielded much in the PERSI article index.

Using a google search, I found a 2003 Leslie Mahler, FASG article in the American Genealogist (TAG)  regarding the purported original immigrant Samuel Barrett in Connecticut and New York - but only because TAG has an online index of articles since 2002.

The abbreviated title in PERSI is not indexed for searching on the New York and Connecticut connections or the NY and CT abbreviations in the title:
Title of Article        English relatives of Samuel Barrett and his sister Hannah Barrett Jenner Coe, 1600s, NY, CT; Eng.
Periodical:        American Genealogist Demorest, GA: Jan 2003. Vol. 78, Iss. 1

Note also that PERSI does not index the author. Leslie Mahler has written many articles about English wills that reference American colonists.

While PERSI has limitations it can be augmented by other Finding Aids to help us build a map of potential sources and pathways to sources. We have to be creative to use these Finding Aids effectively.


If Dr. Suess and P. D. Eastman were genealogists, we might have ditties like "How Gustave Anjou Forged My Ancestors,"  "The Till in the Will," "One Source, Two Source, Red Source, Blue Source," or "Are You My Tenth Great Grandfather?"

The Science of Questioning includes -TaDa - A Reasonably Exhaustive Search!

The first tenet of the BCG Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS) is "a reasonably exhaustive search."

It is not a measure of exasperation for an exhausted researcher.

It is an assertion that the results of a broad search may be funneled through analysis into "a soundly reasoned, coherently written conclusion."

How broad and how deep? Depends.

On what? The particulars.

What particulars? Well, there's a variety and all sorts of possibilities.

How do you know what variety is possible? It depends.

Yes, this is the Abbott and Costello skit for genealogy.

Available resources, are like Gump's chocolates. You never know what you are going to get, including empty.

There are basics.

What brand of boxes were created for the time and place of interest? The types of government, religious, business, cultural, public and personal collections can be explored to create a checklist for a time period and place.

Is there a record of the ingredients and a procedural recipe for the "Who, What, When, Where, Why, How?" Whether or not the sources still exist, it is likely that there is still a record of the contemporaneous practices..

How do you reconcile that the original purpose of the records, their creators and custodians, archival versions and homes will also vary over time? Take the road less traveled, but the most direct.

Do a literature search in genealogical and historical journals. Look for case studies that have any or all of the characteristics of the research at hand.

Look for patterns and threads in the research of others. Don't reinvent the wheel. Do extract what's relevant.

It is possible to find your genealogical problem solution in another's work, but at the very least you will have meta-data - information about the information you need to research - to meet the "a reasonably exhaustive search" criteria.

Who's On First!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sShMA85pv8M

The Science of Questioning begins with - TaDa - Observation!

Genealogy research and analysis is not an art versus a science. It is both.

Some theoretical discussions discount the "scientific approach" because we do not (as yet) have time machines to actually witness the events of interest. Not that directly witnessing an event is foolproof either. Court records are full of contradictory eye-witness accounts.

Cognitive scientists have conducted very interesting experiments that should remind us that human observation has it's frailties. Watch the Invisible Gorilla video and others to illustrate that attention deficit can be induced for a variety of reasons.

However, what we have is hindsight - the ability to collect and observe various records to sort out what is consistent and what is not. Not a bad thing at all!

Visualizing Questions Au Naturel

For all practical purposes, we might as well be "deaf, dumb and blind" when we begin to solve many genealogical problems. The historical context of the location and time period as well as available records may be completely foreign to us.


Local histories, compiled genealogies and newspapers may give us some context without naming our target. Speculating that the family "probably" was of a predominant religion, "likely" a farmer, "possibly" poor, "not likely" to have left records or it would "most assuredly" be too expensive in time and money to do "a reasonably exhaustive search" is a common and self-defeating trap.


Instead like running water circles a drain, leaping to conclusions is expensive and non-productive. Questions need to be articulated and followed.

Some  paths of questioning are hierarchical and the results may be produce sets of intersecting groups to explore.

What religions were practiced in the area?
Are there any clues in naming conventions and cultural patterns in succeeding generations?
Were those religions associated with migration groups?
Do any records still exist?
What resources would know where to check?
Can the local reference librarian or historical society help?
Is there a reference in PERSI, the Family History Library or any academic databases for any microcosm studies in  the area?
Is there an independent scholar in the online genealogical world who has pursued similar questions?

Other questioning patterns may begin by sketching rough drafts on a notepad or experimenting with software for Mind Mapping techniques.

I like the Open Office (free) Impress tool (like PowerPoint) for it's many free form diagramming tools combined with a logical presentation approach - even if I am presenting the thinking process to myself!

The main benefit of following questions without a predetermined bias is that you can find your way one step at a time.

Breaking Genealogical Questions Down into Bite Sized Pieces

Last week I did a few consultations at NEHGS. Thomas MacEntee had organized a day trip for the 2011 Legacy cruise. Thomas recruited volunteers to make the NEHGS day as productive as possible.

Fun day meeting folks I only knew online, reuniting with folks I hadn't seen in a while and meeting others for the first time.


I talked with two folks whose applications were rejected by the Daughters of the American Revolution.  The DAR is checking previously accepted member files and will not let new applications just piggy back  - onto what is no longer acceptable documentation.

One man's service record was erroneously linked with his same-named cousin. Another was rejected because a supplied compiled-genealogy linked an intermediate generation but gave no sources.

The generic questions are "Is this the same man?" and "Who are the parents and children of this couple?"

Those are big questions that have to be broken down into smaller parts.


We try to frame the questions by time and place - the straight edges of the jigsaw puzzle.

Time and place are still big questions without reliable documentation.The bite sized pieces begin by building out from solid documentation, questioning the threads that connect the familial ties as well as the FAN club (friends, associates and neighbors).

Birth marriage, death, religious, cemetery, probate, census, military, deeds, tax lists, directories, and newspapers are among the commonly sought genealogical sources. Other sources may be found.


Extracting every clue from every source will help identify threads to follow.

"What and where are the sources?" is another big question that must also be broken down into the context of time and place, as well as original purpose, accessibility, coverage and reliability.

The art of genealogical research is to be able to visualize the questions and the sources as a fresco pattern of smaller interlocking pieces.

Once you visualize the problems, you can map out your research plan and make progress.

Using Socratic Questioning in Genealogy Research

Are you recording questions in your own research inventory - for every entry in your
" Who, What, When, Where, How, and Why" timeline?

Are you looking for, asking and recording questions when you attempt to help another researcher with a genealogical problem?

Socratic questioning is not a didactic education process. It does not give concrete answers, but asks further questions!

WHY?

We learn how to think, look and reason if WE have to figure out how to recognize, articulate and answer questions.


Visualize the unanswered questions (that you may have been avoiding).

The missing  interlocking pieces we need in any genealogy jigsaw puzzle may be found by asking the questions found in our solid pieces!