Making a Research Log Spreadsheet

I realised recently that I needed to make a research log. I'm often guilty of getting caught up in the
thrill of the chase and then forgetting to note down the sources that I've been researching and how far I've got.

I wanted to make a spreadsheet that was simple enough to fill in, so it wouldn't feel like a chore I had to do after I've finished researching for the day. However, I wanted it to be comprehensive enough that I could note down:

• enough information to help me understand what I did on a certain date
• the documents and sources I used
• how I came to the results/conclusions I reached at that point in time 
• to use it to document the future research I wanted to do

So, I created a spreadsheet that has the following columns (here with a example of the data I entered):

• Date                           24/11/2014
• Source                        https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-30109-16181-83
• Source Title               FamilySearch: Strucht population register 1860-1878
• Record Type              Census
• Purpose                      To locate Ackermans and Wedershoven Families
• Results                        Found both families, but will need to go back and check the names and dates against those already known
• Complete?                  Viewed all 122 pages in the scanned file.
• Documents Created   Ackermans_Strucht_Census and Wedershoven_Strucht_Census

The "Complete?" column will detail whether I need to revisit the source, or if I've viewed all of it - as sometimes I get to the end of the time I've allowed myself and haven't reached the end of the task I started. The "Documents Created" column, in this instance, notes that I made two files from this source - in this case they are saved images of the relevant pages of the population register I was looking through.

As I've made this log in a spreadsheet application, I can also filter on the columns. So for instance if I wanted to find births, marriages, deaths, census, etc; then I'd filter on "Record Type".

I expect that as I get to grips with keeping a research log, columns may be changed, added, or removed as my experience and understanding of researching evolves.


I'm really excited that I've started a research log as it not only feels like I'm on the right track to improve my research methods, but I'm sure it will also help me and any relatives that want to understand what I researched, why, and my thoughts on how I reached conclusions.

Do you log your research activities? Any advice for how to improve my first attempt? Let me know in the comments!