3.1 A Genealogist’s Toolbox

“The way of the carpenter is to become proficient in the use of his tools, first to lay his plans with true measure and then perform his work according to plan.”1−Mitamoto Musashi

Tools are needed to properly care for and expand a family tree. Genealogists use standardization and logs to document and preserve their research. They also need tools to store and share their findings. Family historians reach across research disciplines to discover and share information about individuals and families. Historian Francesca Morgan lists some areas of study that may be helpful to genealogists:

“Historians of genealogy benefit greatly from reading across disciplinary boundaries. Sociologists, anthropologists, and others in the social sciences have furnished crucial vocabularies and frameworks to genealogy studies. Numerous scholars—mainly anthropologists, sociologists, geographers, and other nonhistorians—have found (as I have) that enactments of genealogy have served descendant’s present-day needs. . . . Public historians have explicitly brought genealogists under their umbrellas in situating genealogists’ practices among other forms of do-it-yourself, crowd-sourced history. Genealogy’s ongoing boom seems to erode the barriers surrounding the academy and the archive.”2

Being open-minded, willing to seek information outside of genealogy, and using those skills to discover new records, creating informed historical context, and communicating findings in creative ways will make a researcher a better genealogist and historian. Repeatedly using the tools in this chapter will help you establish efficient and effective research habits.

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