During my research on the invasion of Carlisle I learned a lot of new and interesting things that I have never known before. I also was able to obtain new ways of doing research. The most important thing anyone should know and always keep in my mind when doing historical research is be patient. You might not always find what you were looking for and that’s okay. Sometimes what you are looking for whether it be a document, a memoir, or story just may not exist. That should never mean that you give up. Something is always out there and waiting to be discovered, it just may take more time.
While researching be prepared to look under different search names and change around what you are looking for. For example while I was researching the shelling of Carlisle I was looking up reports from civilians about the event. Instead of just going into the archives of looking up civilian letters or civilian reports I had to get creative and began researching peoples names, their letters to friends and family, or people who worked at Dickinson College. That’s how I was able to find information on John Keggy Staymam. Historical research implies creativity and you have to be ready to think outside of the box while researching.
Before you begin researching make sure that you have a timeline, schedule, or list of the people involved, sequence of events, and topics you want to focus on. This will make your research much easier and make you look like you knew what you were doing. If you just try and throw everything together and just go off a whim you’ll get lost and may end up researching the same thing two or more times. Also if you don’t happen to find information on a person, place, or thing you can cross it off your list to make sure you don’t go back to it. Being organized is probably one of if not the most important thing during research.
Finally while researching make sure you try to link events together. History follows a timeline and everything is connected in some way or another. You may be able to find a similar story about the same topic or even a different topic but it may help your research. History is complicated as Prof. Osborne told us in our 204 class but it’s our job as historians to uncover the past and tell the story about what has happened. Never give up when things get tough, battle through them because you’ll always discover something that will lead you to a great discovery.