Once, when I was a student, a teacher had us create the bibliography for our papers two months before the first draft was due. Before I finished the assignment, I questioned, “Why are we doing this now? I don’t know what sources I’m going to use.”

Having never done it that way, I failed to see the reasoning of creating a bibliography, reference list, or source list first. Afterwards, I realized the power in the exercise. The same can be applied to reference lists in our genealogy. So my suggestion is to create your reference list as you grab the records during your search.

One game changing technique I’ve learned over the years is to find a record, save it, and create my citations in the reference list before I do anything else. This does a couple of things for me. First. It allows me to judge the scope of my research. I can see how many documents I’ve collected on a family member, a topic, or story. I can judge how much searching I've done in a matter of moments.

In other words, have I done a reasonably exhaustive search? A quick glance at your reference list (and research log) can help you determine exactly how much you’ve done, and maybe illuminate for you what other avenues of research you still need in order to solve your query, question, mystery. You might still have more tasks to complete, or you might see that you’ve almost exhausted every avenue of potential information.

Second. Creating a reference list first is a great guide for me to understand what kind of project I am going to work on with my sources.

Let me explain it this way. In life, we often have real people to converse with. In research we have a conversation with the documents and other sources we find. They start the conversation by making a statement. We respond to those statements in multiple ways. Are we going to write a report for a client? Write a case study? Create a family history book, a blog, a podcast, or some other kind of project? Seeing your reference list might be a determining factor in how you decide to respond to the sources you find. For instance, if I have 18 newspapers stories on an event in my ancestor’s life, I might want to create a book and focus it on that one experience.

But if I have one death certificate that tells me about a 12 year stay in one location, I might need to create a research plan to learn more about my ancestor’s time in that locale.

Doing enough research will help you define how you use your research. It helps us because our thoughts, ideas, and opinions will change the more information we consume on any particular topic. If I see a one-minute video on the life of an ancestor, I will have thoughts and feelings. Those thoughts and feelings will change if I watch a thirty-minute video of the same ancestor. Guaranteed. Because you have more information.

Anyway, I believe that the more you research, the more you will know what project comes next, because really, if you don’t plan to produce anything with your research, then why do it?

So, if you don’t create your reference lists first, why don’t you give it a try? See what happens. It might work wonders for your genealogy. Or who knows? You might do what I did and grumble over more homework.