Research Like a Pro Study Group: Creating a Research Objective

I am currently participating in a study group being hosted by Diana Elder, A.G. and her daughter Nicole Dyer of Family Locket.  I purchased their book, Research Like a Pro, in December and realized that my research process could really use some fine-tuning.  I worked my way through their book, participated in a 14-Day Research Like a Pro mini challenge in January, then decided to enroll in their study group, which began in March.

The first step in the Research Like a Pro process is to analyze your pedigree and create a research objective.  For the mini-challenge, I chose a very simple objective:   to identify the marriage date and place of George Albert Moore, born 21 Dec 1878 in Monroe, Grafton, New Hampshire and Bertha Louise Thresher, born 29 December 1883 in Williamsburg, Hampshire, Massachusetts.  It was simple and doable, a great introductory objective that would allow me to really focus on each step in the Research Like a Pro process.  I really enjoyed working through the process in 14 days along with the other participants, and I learned a lot!

For the study group, I knew I wanted to pick something a little more involved.  I decided to work on one of my brick wall ancestors, Jacob Fisher, who is the  4th Generation ancestor for my ICAPGen 4-generation project.  Jacob lived in Pennsylvania, and I have been researching him for several years. I’ve been able to discover his children and grandchildren, but I haven’t been able to discover his parents. 

At first I couldn’t decide whether to make discovering his parents my objective, or whether to go for an in-between step, but in looking at the gaps in my research, I decided it would be best to first discover Jacob’s identity in Northampton County.  All the records I have for him are from his time in Westmoreland County, except for three of his children’s christening records dating from 1786-1798, which are from Northampton and Lehigh counties.  A little research on parent counties in Pennsylvania showed that Lehigh County was formed from Northampton County in 1812, so I believe that records in Northampton County could help me discover more about Jacob.

Several Ancestry trees have Jacob’s parents listed as Christian Fisher and Magdalena Gibbert of Upper Milford in  Northampton County.  I have explored them as possible parents before, but haven’t found much that would help prove this relationship.  I read a history of Upper Milford that suggests Jacob was still residing in Upper Milford in 1808, the year three of my Jacob’s children were christened in Hempfield Township in Westmoreland County, which is on the opposite side of the state from Upper Milford. His residence in Upper Milford in 1808 doesn’t seem likely, so I question whether Christian and Magdalena are actually his parents.

I checked the 1790 Census for Jacob Fisher in Northampton County, and there are two–one in Whitehall and one in Upper Milford.  Which of the two is my Jacob Fisher?  I decided that this should be the objective for my research in the Research Like a Pro study group.  Here is my official research objective. 

The objective of this research project is to determine which of two Jacob Fishers listed on the 1790 Census in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, is the Jacob Fisher that was born 20 April 1761. Jacob married Elizabeth, and died 7 December 1847 in Irwin, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.

I am excited to work on breaking down this brick wall.  I will continue posting about my progress over the next several weeks.

If you are interested in the Research Like a Pro process, I highly recommend the book as well as Diana and Nicole’s podcast.  You can find out more information by visiting their blog, Family Locket.