5 Steps to Research
Step 5 - Evaluate and Share Research

To reach Step 5, the research objectives should be met and the questions should be answered.

Gather together all of your research so you can look at it as a whole and evaluate it.

First evaluate the source of the information. Start with four ways to weigh the source:

Relevancy - the source answered your questions and met your objectives.

Originality - the source is giving firsthand knowledge through a memory, object or record.

Simplicity - the source is direct, simple and unambiguous allowing you to record the information and not your own interpretations.

Consistency - the source is corroborated by other reliable sources. Three is preferable.

You probably will find two pieces of creditable information that conflict. Be open to that possibility and document it. Make a judgment call as to the most correct source.

With creditable research in hand, finally the time has arrived to share the bounty with your family and others who may be searching the same line.

Much of the help you may have received up to this point may have come from online databases. Return the favor by posting your new information to those databases if available. Everton Publishers has a repository of information ready for you to add to. Add one or many records as well as add information to existing records.

Other ways for you to share include printing a family history of the ancestor, create an scrapbook or make a audio or video tape of the information you found.

Upon completion of step 5, go back to step 1 and start all over with another ancestor. When you have completed the information for all of your ancestors with your first four generations, you are ready to advance to the level of an Experienced Researcher.