‘The Luck ‘o the Irish’ is a phrase that may spring to mind this month. If you believe people make their own luck by being prepared and working hard, then this month’s tip may be useful: learn from my mistakes and make that extra effort.

When doing on-line research always save the material you think might be related to the specific fact you were looking for. You can edit your files later when your research is complete. Sadly, I have made the mistake more than once of thinking, ‘Hmm, interesting, but not what I’m after’ only to realize later that I did need that puzzle piece to see the whole picture. Retracing steps is not as easy as it sounds and the internet is not a stable source like a book; instead, it is always changing and just because your search engine found that information once, doesn’t mean it can find it again. Thus, always save the material: if you don’t want to print it, at least bookmark it or copy the material and source to a computer file.

The next mistake is another I knew better than to make: record your source of information. Again, I thought the information was too trivial to need at a later date, or that I would, of course, remember where I got it from because it was so obvious. Unfortunately, as one rushes down the trail on the scent of a clue, it is easy to forget every little landmark along the way and then relocating one tiny spot in all the area covered can be extremely difficult. So, record your path of inquiry.

Having made these silly mistakes and lamented to my loving husband one time too many, I was advised by him that this would make a good topic for my History Tip. While I would like to think he had the best interests of you researchers at heart, it is just possible he was thinking instead of the Significant Others who would be spared listening to the whining. Good Luck in your research!

This article was originally printed in the Bergen News and is being reprinted with permission.