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The WANDER Research Method by Amy Johnson Crow

Lene Dræby Kottal, Certified Genealogist®
The WANDER Research Method by Amy Johnson Crow

WikiTree held a symposium and WikiTree Day online event in 2022. I watched some of the presentations and want to highlight one of them: Amy Johnson Crow's presentation Finding Ancestors Without Going in Circles: The WANDER Research Method.

I like the WANDER research method, which was developed my Amy Johnson Crow. The method is similar to the research procedure I strive to follow, namely the one recommended in Genealogy Standards, 2nd edition (Washington, DC: Board for Certification of Genealogists, 2019). Furthermore, WANDER is an acronym, which makes it easier to remember the steps:

What do you want to find?
Analyze what you already have
Note what is missing
Discover new records
Evaluate everything
Repeat as necessary

Where to Learn about the WANDER Method

You can read about the WANDER research method at Amy Johnson Crow's website. In her post about the method, Amy includes a link to an episode of her Generations Café Podcast, where she talks about the method. You also have the option of signing up for Amy's newsletter to receive a printable document, so you have the method handy if you need to be reminded of the steps.

 

Source References:
The photo at the top was taken by my my father. It shows me when I was ten months old. I am not sure that pushing around a baby walker qualifies as wandering, but I am sure I was examining and analyzing everything on my way - like we do as genealogists.