Lincoln Research

[Steve]

(04-22-2018 10:21 PM)DannyW Wrote:  The question I wanted to ask is related to how the historians - professional or amateurs like myself go about their research on the Lincoln Assassination or matters related to Lincoln .
1. Do you choose something your interested in a particular area?
2. Do you try to locate something new or hasn’t been brought out before?
3. You read all available literature on a particular area & try to give new
Insight.
4. Or in other words how do you go about doing what you are doing?
I should have asked this years ago? Thank you !

I'm an amateur historian just like yourself, but here are my answers to you questions:

1. Yes, I tend to research topics that I'm interested in, otherwise it would be boring. I personally like genealogical research, so in regards to Lincoln I like to look/research small things/questions in depth but those small things can be anything from Lincoln's childhood to his assassination.

2. I like to research those small questions, sometimes they lead to something new, other times they lead to... nowhere.

3. When researching a particular question, I try and find as much information as I can on the specific topic I'm looking at that particular time. But in, say, reading a biography/big book on a large topic/person, I tend to be more scattershot and only read a chapter or a few pages at a time. And a lot of times I read those chapters out of order, I might have something like ADD in that regard.

My advise to you would be, besides researching your primary interest, would be to do historical research on something else like your family history or local history where you live. The skills you can pick up doing that could help you with whatever Lincoln research you're interested in (I'm assuming that's what you want to do since you're on this forum).

Also focus on looking at/researching primary documents when you can!

Good luck!