Who should be writing research reports? Elissa Scalise Powell, CGSM, CGLSM, gave the audience four choices:

  1. Professional genealogists?
  2. Family historians?
  3. Hobbyists?
  4. All of the above!

And the answer is “All of us!” By putting the documents we find into a logical structure, they make it more likely that the discoveries we have made will be understood by researchers in the generations to come.

Elissa gave us not one but two baker’s dozens of delightful sweets. She showed us the thirteen elements that comprise a complete research report. Then she took us through thirteen steps to complete that report. She advocates combining writing and researching as-you-go and showed us why this worked so well for professionals in particular.

This session has been taped. During the conference you can buy it from the JAMB-INC booth in the main conference hall. After the conference, it will be available online at http://www.jamb-inc.com/category/genealogy. This is session S401 under the heading 2013 NGS Conference/Las Vegas, NV.