View Article
Gap Years
by Val Atkinson
Article ID: 33, First Published: January 2006It seems to me that no matter where I am or what I’m doing, I begin seeing parallels with research and life’s experiences.
The other day someone was talking about the ‘Gap Years’ that young people take in their education, and straight away I was applying it to a research problem along these lines:
Life is full of gaps and ways to fill them.
• A TV advert for chocolate once advised us to ‘Bridge that gap with Cadbury’s Snack’. It was advice I was happy to follow.
• I read somewhere that President Bush had encouraged Americans to have a three-day supply of food. I like the idea of a 72-hour pack to bridge the disaster/rescue gap.
• Nowadays people create a gap to go off and do ‘something else’. They put daily life on hold and travel the world for adventure. The ‘gap year’ is an accepted fact of modern life.
The problems with these ‘fillers’ are:
• Gaps filled by chocolate regenerate after a few hours, and though I’m not complaining, it does have to be constantly replenished.
• An ‘eaten’ 72-hour pack would have to be refilled, and an uneaten one monitored for ‘sell by’ dates to rotate the contents.
• The yen for adventure might cause people to periodically create a personal gap, and go off again when life should be lived rather than put on hold.
Research gives new meaning to the expression ‘Gap Year(s)’.
The beauty of research gaps is that once they’re properly filled the repair is enduring and totally permanent. They never need refilling, just revisiting to gloat and rejoice.
Research is about the tackling of gaps and their everlasting repair. This process of discovery is the ‘gap filling activity’.
Here is an example of a ‘gap filling activity’ from actual research of a family that emigrated from England to Australia in 1876. Its history was well documented in the New World but blighted by gaps in the old.
James RAINE aged 20 years, occupation Mason, was married at Easington Durham on 22 September 1862. His marriage certificate showed no father’s name and no relatives as witnesses. The wedding certificate could only tell us he was born c1842, presumably in England.
Searches in the area of James’ marriage revealed the birth of an illegitimate child.
WEST RAINTON: Born 22 April 1842 and baptised 8 June 1842
James son of Dinah RAINE single woman of Pittington.
When searching in the dark I like to have at least three points of contact as ‘witnesses’ that an entry is correct, and worth further investigations. This one looked very promising, with date, place, and single parentage as positive pointers.
We wanted to prove/disprove that the James RAINE who married in 1862 was Dinah’s son.
We needed him on the 1871 census married to the right woman and stating the right birthplace, at a time when the census was not indexed and we had no idea where he lived.
Lateral or so-called negative research was needed, the (hated) sideways step to obtain ‘second class’ pointers in order to access ‘first class’ information.
Until we have learned the ‘Speculate to Accumulate’ rule, we grossly underrate the value of lateral research. We behave like the motorist who roundly curses the traffic diversion put in for safety reasons, and see it only as a massive irritating time waster.
To embrace lateral research we have to temporarily give up what we want most (James RAINE with full data garnished and displayed on a plate) for what we need at the moment (a firm hand-hold on a wet slippery piece of crockery).
Details of his children were known, and a birth certificate was obtained for the child born nearest to 1871. This showed the family in Ryhope Durham, and a manual search of the 1871 census images revealed:
1871 RYHOPE CENSUS AT 100 RAILWAY STREET
James Raine born about 1843 Pittington Durham England Head Occupation Mason
Mary A Raine born about 1846 South Hetton Durham England Wife
Thomas Raine born about 1865 South Hetton Durham England
James Raine born about 1867 Dalton le Dale Durham England Son
John R Raine born about 1870 Ryhope Durham England Son
This census brought us full circle with the essential elements of James’ life firmly identified and proved.
1842 born Pittington
1862 married aged 20 with occupation Mason
1871 census aged 28 born Pittington with occupation Mason
1876 over to Australia
WHAT HAVE WE DISCOVERED?
• Each ‘Gap Problem’ we tackle provides methodology for future research problems until we have ‘blue prints’ for the best known methods to get where we want to be.
• Closing gaps gets rid of ‘guesstimates’ and approximates in family history and provides blueprints for further research when the problem recurs (as it will!).
• Firmly identifying and proving is the name of the game
WHAT NEXT?
• Use the plan above for your own gaps, when you want to triumph over adversity
.
• Formulate plans for other research gap problems and share them with your friends.
Watch this space for the ‘Gap Filling Activity’ needed to bring us full circle with Dinah RAINE James’ mother.
