The Art of In-depth Research

Today the author, Fred White, talks about the really hard work of researching material. I agree with him that to be good a researcher must go further than internet, but that is a good starting point. For my examiner.com articles I like to start with the internet and then do personal interviews with some of the local individuals involved in that particular mission. Even articles that are more my personal opinion I use not only internet but other resources. My junior year in high school my father worked for Marie Sandoz's sister. Marie wrote many books based on the history of pioneer events that occurred in panhandle of Nebraska where I was born and raised. Her most widely known book was Cheyenne Autumn that was made into a movie. She also wrote a biography of her father Jules Sandoz. One of the things I remember was all the old magazines, books, even school textbooks that were stored in sheds through out the property. One day while painting one of those sheds I asked Carolyn (the sister) why she didn't just throw all that old stuff away. As a 16 year old I saw no reason to store a bunch of old magazines. She told me that she could not throw any of it away because her sister might need some of it for her writing. The only thing of any possible value to my young eyes was a large number of National Geographic magazines, and that was just because I loved readings about far away places.
There have been times since then that I have wished I had some of those old resources as I do genalogical research on my family who lived in the same area. Much of my information on my family have been gathered in particular from old newspaper clippings that people have saved and passed down. Then there are the old cenus records that have entailed hours of trying to read old microfilm on which they have been archieved.
I have saved a number of old pictures, newspaper clippings, copies of census records of my research into my own personal lineage but I can also use the same material as a resource for historically based fiction.