For example, I searched through an archive of nineteenth century newspapers for specific people's obituaries. I made several visits and focused on specific years each time. My reward was that I was able to be thorough in my search without being overwhelmed with the size of the task and, as a result, I located the obituaries I wanted and found news articles about the people as well. Make notes of what you did and did not locate. If you set goals for yourself and couldn't satisfy them because of a lack of resources, missing or destroyed records, or other reasons, make notes for yourself.
Many people use research calendars.
These provide a structured form where you can note what information you were researching, where you looked, what resources you referred to, what you found, and what you did with the information. You'll find that a research calendar can help you focus on missing items and can prevent you from wasting time researching the same material multiple times. It has been published in four cover colors that I know of, and I always gravitate to that book for some reason. YOU FIND When you receive more information about an individual, take the time to reevaluate your previous data in light of the new discovery. One piece of new material may cause you to change your entire perspective and reassess your hypotheses.