English Team Project - Data

Your Name (so it shows up in table of contents)
Chloe Thiveaud
Neha Badam
Anthony Caropolo
Austin Fan
Katie Roberts
Ahn
Ashi Parashar
Anna Hart
Maxina Sheft
Tony Kedzierski
Mary Kate Gale
Stella Yang
Jonathan Womack
Tiffany Jeng
Bryce Smith
Oscar Aguilar
Dead End Strategies Content
Vikas Barevadia
Camila Padilla
Instructions!
Please complete the following “form” (copy & paste onto the start of a new page… DO
NOT JUST FILL IN THIS FORM) below the example response. Make sure to fill out
every question, to include your name, and to include your assigned author. Please be
sure to write in complete sentences. See the sample below if you have any questions.
Please color code your response according to the following chart:
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Your Name (so it shows up in table of contents)

Response
Your Name:
Author Name(s):
Resource Tab: What resources did you did you find most useful? Please include at least one
unique resource (i.e. check everyone else’s resource sections and make sure that you aren’t
doing one of the same resources as that person). If you want, you can add new information
about other people’s resource sections if you used the same resource. If you have any tips
about how best to use this resource or in what situations it was most useful, include this
information as well.
● Answer:
Process Tab: What process did you go through when you were researching (i.e. where did you
start, what led you down a “rabbit hole”, how did you keep track of information, etc.)?
● Answer:
Dead-end Strategies Tab: What did you do when you hit a “dead end”? What was your next
step? (again, try not to repeat the same exact answers as other people)
● Answer
What would you do if you had more time? Are there any steps you took that were not
necessarily efficient/helpful?
● Answer
Misc.: What advice would you give to future students? Please provide at least 1 unique piece
of advice!
● Answer:
Author Tab
● Write a 2 sentence summary (“blurb”) of your author:
● Fill out the table. If you do not know the information, put “N/A” in the box
Birth date
Birth place
Death date
Death Place
Known family
Married to______
Marriage date
School
Other profession (if applicable)
Misc. Information
● List any known works by your authors (include publication dates if possible)
Title of work Year of Publication

Chloe Thiveaud
Sample
Your Name: Chloe Thiveaud
Author Name(s): Louisa Beaufort
Blurb:
An accomplished Irish author, artist and antiquarian, Louisa Catherine Beaufort was the first
woman to have a paper presented to the Royal Irish Academy. She extensively studied
architecture, entomology, and antiques and published several works on these topics.
doing one of the same resources as that person). If you want, you can add to other people’s
resource sections if you used the same resource.
● The resource I found most helpful was a professor I contacted. Dr. Burr conducted her
own research on Beaufort and gave a talk on her in 2011. I reached out to her and she
had a bunch of information from her own paper as well as a collection of resources such
as books, archives, journals, etc. that she recommended. I was not able to access
everything she suggested, but I was able to get a fair amount of information.
Additionally, ancestry.com was also a very good resource as it linked me to some
archives that provided me with information about my author’s birth, death and family
members.
● I started with a general google search which yielded a wikipedia page. I cross-
referenced the sources on the wikipedia page, but was unable to access them. I then
emailed Dr. Burr about my author and waited for a response. While I waited, I used
ancestry.com and HathiTrust to obtain biographical information and gain access to her
books. Emailing the professor was truly the most valuable source for information in my
case.
● I kept a running Word document of all my information in order to keep track of what I had
uncovered. Every day that I conducted research, I started at the top of a new page and
included the date. I think copied links/ citation information to every source and included a
brief summary of what I found on the source.
● The only point I hit a dead end was when I was unable to access the archives to Trinity
College Dublin. Seeing as I do not attend that college, I could not get online verification
to see some of the journals and illustrations my author created. Unfortunately there was
no other way to go about obtaining this information so I focused on researching more
about her professional career in the hopes that a reference to her journals would pop up.
● If I had more time I would try to directly contact Trinity College Dublin to get access to
the journals and painting. I think that most of the steps I took were pretty efficient so I
would redo those steps.
of advice!
● DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. I contacted a professor who has a busy life and took some
time out of her day to help me out. It often took 4+ days to get a response so getting the
project started early and corresponding with professional is an excellent first step.
Birth date 1781
Birth place Ireland
Death date 1863
Death Place Dublin, Ireland
Known family Daniel Beaufort (father), Mary Waller

(mother), Henrietta Beaufort (sister),
Frances Beaufort (sister), William
Beaufort (brother), Francis Beaufort
(brother)
Married to______ unmarried
Marriage date unmarried
School unknown
Other profession (if applicable) No other profession
Misc. Information
Dialogues on Entomology in which the 1819

Forms and Habits of Insects are
Familiarly Explained.
An Essay upon the State of Architecture 1828

and Antiquities
Neha Badam
EXAMPLE
Your Name: Neha Badam
Author Name(s): Mary Wolcott Janvrin Ellsworth
about other people’s resource sections if you used the same resource.
● Answer: Personally, I found Hathitrust to be an extremely useful database because it is
where I was able to find copies of my author’s works. Not only did it help me attain
periodicals my author wrote, but it also introduced me to short stories and articles she
had written which I was previously unaware of. From this information, I was able to
gather a sense of her location (through the publisher’s location), track her career
(through publication date), and become familiar with her literary voice.
● Answer: I started with a presearch on google which gave me rough dates for Ellsworth’s
birth and death years along with a manuscript which she wrote. I used her name and
predicted birth year to do a search on ancestry which lead me down a rabbit hole. I was
able to gather Ellsworth’s biographical information along with titles of a few of her works.
With these titles, I went to Haithi Trust where I searched for the writing itself. I kept track
of information on a running google doc with links to my sources and bullet points of
information underneath.
● I hit a dead end when I was unable to find the first few writing pieces I was looking for. At
this point I had found one of Ellsworth’s periodicals in Godey’s Lady’s Book (a magazine
she wrote for). I looked up issues of Godey’s Lady’s Book around the time of the issue I
had already found and was lucky enough to find another issue of the same magazine
that featured Ellsworth’s writing. This issue also included an advertisement for
Ellsworth’s other work: Peace, or the Stolen Will. A quick search of this title on Haithi
Trust lead me to a copy of this novel. Even though I was unable to find the original
pieces I was looking for, this helped me find some pieces written by Ellsworth.
● If I had more time I would look further into the school Ellsworth attended. The searches I
did for her school did not give me any results, but I could have tried searching a few
other data bases.
● Using Academic Search Complete was not very helpful. It gave me no results when I
searched Ellsworth’s name.
of advice!
● Answer: Definitely start by googling your author. Although this seemingly did not give me
much information, it gave me enough information to narrow down the results that popped
up on ancestry.com
Author Tab
As a female author in the early 19th century, Mary Wolcott Janvrin Ellsworth started her literary
career at the young age of 18 when she began writing for The Boston Journal. From there,
Ellsworth’s writing diversified as she published works ranging from biographical articles to
children’s literature.
Birth date 7 September 1830
Birth place Rockingham, New Hampshire
Death date 12 August 1870
Death Place Middlesex, Massachusetts
Known family ● Parents: Joseph Adams Janvrin

and Lydia Ann Colcord
● Brothers: Howard (2 years
younger than her), Joseph
Edward, Louis Henry, George
William
● Sisters: Deborah, Joanna
Married to______ Oliver Ellsworth

Marriage date 13 Aug 1868
School Exeter Female Seminary
Other profession (if applicable) N/A
Misc. Information ● Her husband was a publisher

● She wrote under her maiden name
(Janvrin)
Started writing for The Boston Journal 1848
Wrote biographical articles for Cypress 1857

Leaves
Peace, or the Stolen Will 1857
The Juvenile Miscellany 1858
Started writing for Godey’s Lady’s Book & 1858

Magazine
The Youth’s Cabinet (introduction for 1858

vol3)
An Hour with the Children 1860

Anthony Caropolo
Your Name: Anthony Caropolo
Author Name: Amanda Bartlett Harris
about other people’s resource sections if you used the same resource.
● Answer: The resource I found most helpful was contacting the historical society in the
town in which Amanda lived. Simply reaching out via email to the contact email provided
netted me a wealth of information including an excerpt from a book they were working on
about their town, pictures of the house and town she lived in, and even archival
documents.
● Answer: In my research, I starting with Google searching my author and was led to a
New Hampshire history blog on my author. This provided me with a lot of biographical
information and the titles of some of her works which I could then conduct further
research on. From emailing the author of this blog, I obtained contact information for the
Warner Historical Society, who provided me with further information and excerpts they
had collection while compiling their excerpt on her for their book on the history of
Warner. In essence, my process was to continue to follow all leads that I had the chance
to.
● The only dead-end I hit was that I didn’t find any information on Ancestry about my
author. To this extent, I instead found a website called FamilySearch where I was able to
find this needed information.
● If I had more time, I would’ve liked to explore contacting more obscure or reach leads; as
I simply contacted leads that I essentially knew had information I wanted.
of advice!
● Answer: Start early! Sometimes you run into issues: for instance, I had to find duplicate
sources for the information I obtained from the blog because Wikipedia doesn’t accept
blogs as sources.
Author Tab
● Write a 2 sentence summary (“blurb”) of your author: Amanda Bartlett Harris was born
and spent her whole life in Warner, New Hampshire. Over her lifetime, she wrote
prolifically on topics of nature and children’s education.
Birth date 8/15/1824
Birth place Warner, NH
Death date 1/13/1917
Death Place Warner, NH
Known family Harrison Gray Harris (attorney, father);

Mary B. Harris (mother); John A. Harris,
Mary B. Harris, Henry L. Harris (siblings,
oldest to youngest)
Married to______ N/A
Marriage date N/A
School N/A
Misc. Information She lived her whole life in Warner and

cared for her younger siblings when her
mother died when Amanda was 18
Old School-Days 1886

How We Went Birds Nesting 1880
American Authors for Young Folks 1887
Wild Flowers and Where They Grow 1883
Pleasant Authors for Young Folks 1884
Dooryard Folks and a Winter Garden 1883
Little Folks’ Every Day Book: Rhymes and 1881

illustrations for Every Day
Fireplaces Stories
Among the Shakers 1877
Queer People 1886

Austin Fan
Your Name: Austin Fan
Author Name(s): Laura D. Nichols
● Answer: The resources I found most useful ended up being the Boston Public Library
Reference Historian email (I got the information from them after the project was
submitted, so make sure you email them early).
● Answer: I began with a presearch on google. I noted the publisher of my authors’ books,
which were mainly in Boston. From that I inferred that she probably lived in Boston or in
Massachusetts. I then looked on the suggested databases (Ancestry, JSTOR, Literary
Criticism Online, Oxford English Dictionary), making sure to record the searches I made
in a Google Doc. That didn’t find much success so I moved onto emailing people of
literary historical merit in Boston. The overall process was combing through the
resources I had and then moving on if it didn’t work.
● Answer: My dead-end mainly came after not finding anything on databases. The next
step I took was emailing people who could potentially help me (literary historians in
Boston). However, I did this too late, and everyone directed me towards the Boston
Public Library Reference Historians, which I got the information from after the project
was due so the information came too late.
● Answer: If I had more time I would have used the information I got from the Boston
Public Library to search my author on Ancestry, hopefully discovering a lot of new
information.
of advice!
● Answer: I would suggest getting started on searches on databases as soon as possible
so that you can email people for help if it doesn’t work out. You cannot start out emailing
people because you need to do some work on your own first, and have to show that the
help you are looking for is actually necessary.
Author Tab
Laura D. Nichols was an author who wrote a whole host of works for children, including novels
(Overhead and Underfoot) as well as articles in periodicals and magazines in the Boston area.
Laura D. Nichols was actually a pseudonym for her real name: Lucy Dix Bolles.
Birth date April 3, 1837 (From BPL after project due
date)
Birth place Roxbury, Massachusetts
Death date November 6th, 1922
Death Place Massachusetts
Known family Father: John Augustus Bolles

Mother: Catherine Hartwell Dix
Married to______
Marriage date
School
Other profession (if applicable)
Misc. Information
Overhead; Or, what Harry and Nelly 1878

discovered in the Heavens
1881
Underfoot, Or, What Harry and Nelly
learned of the Earth’s Treasures: a
Sequel to Overhead
“My Boy” (article in the periodical Merry’s 1868-1871

Museum for Boys and Girls)
“Evening Rest” (Poem in Harper’s 1869

Magazine)
UpHill and DownDale 1886
Nelly Marlow in Washington 1886
A Norway Summer 1897
Lotus Bay, a Summer on Cape Cod 1889

Katie Roberts
Response
Your Name: Katie Roberts
Author Name(s): Annie E. Ridley
● Answer: Ancestry, Archive.org, and my author’s books were the most helpful resources
for me. Archive.org had coupies of all my author’s books. Then by going through my
author’s books I was able to find out information about her such as her full name, family
relations, and birthdate. Using this information, I then proceeded to Ancestry which
allowed me to find census records and tons of other information about my author.
● Answer: I started with Google, and Ancestry however at first none of these resources
were really helping me. Google led me to a list of books; however, none of these helped
me narrow down any search results on Ancestry. I was stuck for a couple days with no
idea where to look next. Finally, I read through my author’s books. Some of them
actually had some information I could use to narrow down search results for Ancestry
ultimately allowing me to locate the right person. I kept track of information by having a
word document. With each new page I went to, I would copy the link and write down all
the information found there.
● Answer: My strategy was to look deeper into things I already new. For example, if I knew
the date to the earliest book my author wrote I subtracted twenty years to come up with
a working birth year for Ancestry. This allowed me to narrow results and get closer to my
author. Finally, my best strategy was actually to read through my author’s books
because she put small pieces of biographical information in her books.
● Answer: If I had more time, I would try to reach out to historical societies where my
author lived as well as reaching out to the school she worked at. One thing I did that was
not helpful was trying to find people close to my author and see if I could find out
anything of my author by search the person. For, example I knew she was close friends
with a public figure, so I tried to use the public figure to find out more about my author,
but it turned up nothing.
of advice!
● Answer: Read or at least skim through your author’s books because you will be
surprised by what you can find. Also, do not be afraid to reach out and contact people.
Author Tab
● Write a 2 sentence summary (“blurb”) of your author: Annie Eleanor Ridley, author of
Under the Waves: the Hermit-Crab ‘in Society’ and other novels, was born in 1839 in
England. She was very passionate about women’s education and was governor of
Camden School of Girls for twenty-four years.
Birth date May 2nd, 1839
Birth place Houghton Le Spring, Durham, England
Death date December 1st, 1923
Death Place Stagshaw, 31 Daleham Gardens,

Hampstead, London
Known family ● Parents: John Ridley and Mary

White Pybus
● Siblings: Mary Elizabeth Ridley
and Jane T. Ridley
Married to______ unmarried
Marriage date unmarried
School Homeschool by Miss Darke

Other profession (if applicable) Governor of Camden School for Girls
Misc. Information Lived in Australia for 13 years

Inspired by her father to start writing as
well as love for science and education
Under the Waves: the Hermit-Crab ‘in 1865

Society’
Thrift for Teachers n/a
Better Than Good 1880
Frances Mary Buss and Her Work for 1895

Education
A Backward Glance: The Story of John 1904

Ridley, a Pioneer
Benjamin Ahn
Response
Your Name: Benjamin Ahn
Author Name(s): Mary A Spear
● Answer: My most useful source was Google Books and the Library of Congress. I found
a lot of hidden publications of my author through the Library of Congress. Every
published document that she had written an article for, or a page in a textbook for was
there. Google Books was useful for finding school related documents since neither
Ancestry nor the Library of Congress had those types of documents. The Journal of
Education in Connecticut and Teaching reports were all found through Google Books.
● Answer: I started with a Google search, and started hunting for different categories of
information. Categories included birth/death dates and locations, places she lived, family
members, other published works, and occupations. To find information on each
category, I would comb through various search engines and data bases or contact
scholars and potential institutions (like a university, publishing company, or potential
living ancestor). Once I found a piece of evidence, I would then try to verify it. This
process entailed looking for the same piece of information from another source, or trying
to find a third piece of information that connected two other pieces of evidence (ie. one
document showed that Mary Spear lived in South Manchester. Another document
showed that Mary Spear worked as a teacher. I wanted to make sure that both were
indeed my author. Turns out, I found another piece of evidence that showed Mary Spear
worked in South Manchester as a summer teacher and moved as a full time teacher. )
● Email dead-ends were common. I would try emailing a publishing company or a past
relative and they would not respond or simply say that they were too busy to help. My
next step was to either follow up with another email (if they didn’t respond) or to contact
another institution that could give me the same information (ie. i was trying to contact the
Unviersity of West Chester. I wasn’t sure who to contact so I talked with Dr. Fitz who
mentioned contacting a different department then what I had orginally contacted - the
Liberal Arts Department and the Office of Students).
● Answer: I wish I had looked more into the location of my author. At the time of my
research, I had two potential leads as to where my author could’ve lived. It wasn’t until
the end of the project time line that I had realized that one of my leads was incorrect.
Now that I think I have her location narrowed down more, I hope to search more through
property records or birth records to find more information about her.
of advice!
● Answer: Start the project early! Find a way to enjoy the literary research process.
Research is all about getting your head fully submerged in your topic and losing yourself
in the research process. Follow every potential rabbit hole since you never know which
one will be the one, and every incorrect result that you find is also one step closer to
finding the correct result. Keep a record of every search result and engine that you tried
and mark the date that you tried it.
Author Tab
● Write a 2 sentence summary (“blurb”) of your author: A writer of educational texts, a
school administrator, and a teacher, Mary A Spear served as a school principal in
Pennsylvania and started publishing textbooks during the beginning part of her career.
She moved to South Manchester, Connecticut in 1893 and worked as a teacher,
continuing to publish until her death in 1893.
Birth date N/A
Birth place N/A
Death date 1893
Death Place Assumed to be South Manchester,

Connecticut
Known family N/A
Marriage date N/A
School N/A
Other profession (if applicable) Late Principal of Model School, State

Normal School in West Chester,
Pennsylvania.
Geography Summer School Teacher in
South Manchester, Connecticut
Teacher for the Connecticut Public School
system
Misc. Information She moved from West Chester,

Pennsylvania to South Manchester,
Connecticut in 1893.
Although she wrote book about plant
anatomy, she taught geography and
teaching theory (basically, she worked at
a school that taught people how to be a
teacher).
Leaves and Flowers or Plant Studies for 1892

Young Readers
Preparing to Read; or The Beginning of 1891

School Life
A Study of the Pansy (II) 1896

Ashi Parashar
Your Name: Ashi Parashar
Author Name(s): Phoebe Anne Allen
● Answer: The most helpful resource I found was the Historical Society page of the
location that my author lived in. She died in Isle of Wight so I was able to contact the Isle
of Wight Historical Society to gain some more information about her and some potential
resources.
● Answer: I started with a simple Google search of my author. I went through Ancestry,
WorldCat, C19, and many other resources trying to find information about my author. I
emailed a lot of different professors and libraries trying to find someone who knew
anything about my author. One professor proved very helpful in giving me many primary
resources about my author.
● Answer: My dead ends were mainly at the beginning and end of my research. At first, I
was unable to find any information about my author besides the one article that was
written with minimal information. I emailed several people and none of them were
responding. Even though I found an 1841 census, I wasn’t able to deduce which family
was hers. My next step was to look through her books in order to figure out what kind of
person she was and what her potential motivation for writing could have been.
● Answer: If I had more time I would try to find more information about my author. I would
read closely through her books to see if there were any common themes or messages
she was trying to convey through her works.
of advice!
● Answer: I would suggest for students to not give up even if people aren’t answering their
emails. I emailed about 4-5 people before finally receiving an answer from someone who
gave me a lot of helpful information. I would suggest that if someone you think would be
particularly helpful isn’t responding, email them again after about a week, and mention
that you emailed them previously in your new email.
Author Tab
Phoebe Anne Allen was a famous English writer of children’s literature, who specialized
in writing about botany. She applied to the Royal Literary Fund in 1903 and most of her books
were published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
Birth date November 1st, 1850
Birth place Litchfield, Hampshire, England
Death date February 21, 1933
Death Place Ryde, Isle of Wight
Known family John Collins Allen, Julia Louisa Allen,

Edith Priscilla Allen, Amy Agnes Miles,
Bertha Annie Miles
Married to______ Not married
Marriage date N/A
School N/A
Misc. Information N/A
Gilmory 1876
Like to a Double Cherry 1880
Asaph Wood: or Little by Little 1882
The Cricket Club: or, Warned Just in 1884

Time. A Story for Mothers' Meetings.
Broken Hearts are Still. 1885
The Black Witch of Honeycritch. 1886
Old Iniquity: A Novel. 1886
Thanksgiving Tabernacle. 1888
Wanted a Camel. 1888

Anna Hart
Response
Your Name: Anna Hart
Author Name(s): Sarah Scudgell Wilkinson
● The most helpful resource I used was the Orlando Project page made through
Cambridge University. The Orlando Project set out to give biographical information on
women’s writers in Britain. I would highly recommend searching other libraries and
universities to see what other researchers have found on your author; in my case, this
proved to give me much valuable information. If your author lived in Britain, checking the
Orlando Project page would be a great idea.
● Another helpful resource I used was The Feminist Companion of Literature in English,
which gave a solid paragraph of information on many female writers. The book had
good, reliable, information, and interestingly was created by some of the same authors
of the Orlando Project.
● Furthermore, World Cat provides information on works written by various authors. The
identities page of World Cat proved to be a helpful source to back-trace through for me.
● In my research, I utilized a backtracking strategy, as recommended by Dr.
Fitzsimmons and Karen Viars. I started my journey towards discovering Sarah
Wilkinson’s identity by exploring the Baldwin Guiding Science Website. Thanks to
Suzan Alteri and J. Prussing, as well as all the others at the Baldwin Library who
worked on this site, I learned Wilkinson’s date of birth and death, her signature
“S.W.” and some additional works and publication information. This information
proved highly valuable in starting off the research process, and I reached out to
Suzan Alteri to gain more insight into how she discovered this information as well
as whether Wilkinson illustrated her own works. Suzan Alteri provided me with a
very kind response, and I recommend reaching out to other librarians and
researchers for help with the process. I searched for some of Sarah Wilkinson’s
works on WorldCat and ended up finding the WorldCat identities page. The page
linked me to many valuable sources. From the linked WikiData page, I found the
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography which gave more biographical
information. From tracing through the WorldCat page, I found a source as part of
the Library of Congress. Back-tracing some more, I found The Feminist
Companion of Literature in English, which proved a solid source on my author.
After my first back-tracing expedition, I took another journey through the existing
Wikipedia article. Most helpful, I found the Orlando Project page, which is a
compilation of much research done to advance the knowledge we have of Sarah
Wilkinson. There, I found a large compilation of information about her work,
connections, and life. I believe there are still many routes to be pursued through
back-tracing!
Research is like going on a journey through a web: sources link together, some
sources being more of a junction or stepping-stone, and others containing a
plethora of information and pointing towards even more! At some point, the web
loops back around - many of my sources were linked to more than one source -
but there are still many more avenues to pursue.
● For me, I hit a few obstacles during the research process. If needed, I am sure they could
have been overcome; however, I found much information elsewhere. I would recommend
first checking if you can find the information from other sources before trying to
surmount walls in the research process, as this strategy saved me much time. While there
appears to be much information in British Archives regarding Sarah Wilkinson, I hit a
paywall. I chose to pursue the route of finding free information, first; however, Karen
Viars offered to help with overcoming paywalls. Some of the sources, such as WikiData,
I did not end up using as sources in my final project; however, they served as a stepping
stone for me to back-trace to other sources. Furthermore, I had some trouble determining
which Sarah Wilkinson was which on Ancestry. Upon finding more information to help
narrow down the Sarah Wilkinsons, I could not find an entry that matched my known
information. However, there were many great suggestions made by my classmates, Dr.
Fitzsimmons, and Karen Viars regarding the usage of Ancestry, many of which can be
found on this site.
● If I had more time, I would have sought Karen Viars’ assistance in obtaining copies of
information about my author from the British Archives. Furthermore, as Dr. Fitzsimmons,
Karen Viars, and my classmates suggested, I would have tried using larger variations
and combinations of keywords in my Ancestry source, such as family members and
varying the exactness of biographical characteristics, such as name and date of birth
and death to try to find Sarah Wilkinson’s data on Ancestry.
of advice!
● Backtrace! Even if a source does not appear useful by itself, such as the WikiData page
appeared to me, oftentimes there are links and sources at the bottom of a page that can
lead to a hidden treasure of information. When you think you have exhausted your
efforts, check all of the websites you have visited for sources they used.
Author Tab
Sarah Wilkinson was born in the 18th century and wrote novels, abridged works, textbooks,
periodical articles, and Valentine’s verses (Brown, et. al.; Blain, et. al. 1167). Wilkinson
struggled with poverty, held a circulating library, worked at a school, and died of cancer (Brown,
et. al.).
Birth date 14 December 1779
Birth place n/a
Death date 19 March 1831
Death Place St Margaret’s Workhouse, Westminster
Known family Parents: Hannah and William

Daughter: Amelia
Married to______ Scadgell
Marriage date n/a

School n/a
Other profession (if applicable) Teacher, Librarian
Misc. Information
Sources for Table: Brown, et. al
The tragical history of Crazy Jane, and 1800

Young Henry: giving an account of their
birth, parentage, courtship, and melancholy
end: founded on facts
Monkcliffe Abbey, or, The history of Albert, 1807

Elwina, and Adeline
The maid of Lochlin, or, Northern mysteries 1804

: a Scottish romance
Convent of Grey Penitents : or, the 1810

Apostate Nun. A romance
The Fugitive Countess; or, Convent of St. 1807

Ursula. A Romance
New Tales 1819
The history of Crazy Jane 1813
The eventful history of Charles Brandon, 1820

duke of Suffolk, the flower of English
chivalry, and the Princess Mary of England;
an original romance, founded on historical
facts
The pathetic and interesting history of 1804

George Barnwell, the London 'prentice :
founded on facts
A visit to a farm-house, or, An introduction 1804
to various subjects connected with rural
economy
Source: (WorldCat Identities)
Sources used in my Research Process:
Alteri, Suzan. Class Interview. 25 September 2018.

Alteri, Suzan. “Re: Research Regarding Sarah Wilkinson.” Received by Anna Hart, 18
September 2018.
Alteri, S. and Prussing, J. “Guiding Science: Publications by Women in the Romantic and
Victorian Ages.” Guiding Science, Rauch, A. and Van Kleek, University of Florida,
http://cms.uflib.ufl.edu/guidingscience/bibliography.
Baines, Paul. “Wilkinson, Sarah Scudgell.” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 23 September
2004,
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001
/odnb-9780198614128-e-45868.
Blain, Virginia, Grundy, Isobel, and Clements, Patricia. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English, Yale University
Press, 1990, pp. 1167.
Brown, Susan, Clements, Patricia, Grundy, Isobel. Sarah Scudgell Wilkinson. Orlando,
Cambridge University Press, 2018,
http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/svPeople?crumbtrail=on&dt_end_cal=AD&dt_end_day=27&dt_end_month=09
&dt_end_year=2018&dt_start_cal=BC&dt_start_year=0612&dts_historical=0612--+BC%3A2018-08-
16&dts_lives=0612--+BC%3A2018-08-16&dts_monarchs=0612--+BC%3A2018-08-
16&formname=q&subform=1&submit.y=0&submit.x=0&name_entry=Wilkinson%2C+Sarah+Scudgell&overrideAuth
ority=0
formname=r&people_tab=1&person_id=wilksa&crumbtrail=on&heading=h.
“User Contributions” Wikipedia, 27 September 2018,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/PamD.
“Wilkinson, Sarah Scudgell.” Library of Congress Name Authority File, 31 July 1991. Library of
Congress, http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr91025475.html.
“Wilkinson, Sarah Scudgell.” WorldCat Identities, 2010. OCLC,
http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-nr91025475/.
Maxina Sheft
Response
Your Name: Maxina Sheft
Author Name(s): Amy Johnson
● Answer: The most helpful, unique resource that I obtained information from was an
employee at an old school which had its own archives. My author attended the
University of St. Andrews, and their archive online did not have information about her,
but I reached out to the archives in the hope that they had paper records and was
successful. I obtained further information on her education and future research paths to
follow.
● In addition, my author’s books included a city that she lived in when the book was
published. Reading the preface, introduction, or afterword of a book can reveal
biographical information about an author.
● Answer: Most of my initial research was done through Google Scholar (Google Books)
because I found many search results very early on in the project. Using this resource, I
found uploaded pdfs of my author’s books and many other old academic journals. In
most of these she was referenced in advertisements or book reviews that were paid for
by her publisher. From there, I looked into archives surrounding my author’s publishers
and biographical information which I could find in her book. I kept track of the links to the
advertisements, but did not put effort into organizing them because they had no useful
biographical information.
● Answer: I repeatedly hit dead ends using Ancestry.com and Familysearch.org because
‘Amy Johnson’ was a common name, and there were no exact time and location
matches to the few address I had for her. Everytime I became stuck, I would go back
over the notes I had taken and choose another research path to follow. I did not waste
too much time trying to get the perfect information out of one source, instead, I tried to
follow as many different leads as possible.
● Answer: At the end of my research, one of my contacts revealed information that
contradicted a fundamental assumption about my author, and I would have liked to look
into that. I also did not look much into secondary sources regarding my author because I
could not find any initially and did not bother to look further. This may have hindered my
research, and some perseverance might have been helpful in the long run.
of advice!
● Answer: Definitely keep track of what searches or resources you use and take notes on
the results. That way you can be sure that you have done something before and don’t
need to waste time repeating it. Also, it gives you a good idea of what key search terms
might work as you check different resources.
Author Tab
Amy Johnson, author of Sunshine, published this novel in 1892 for children to have practical
experiences with scientific experiments. She was formally educated at the University of St.
Andrews, and she taught at various educational institutions afterwards.
Birth date N/A
Birth place N/A
Death date N/A
Death Place N/A
Known family N/A
Marriage date N/A

School Attended University of St. Andrews,
earned her L.L.A. degree in 1888
Other profession (if applicable) Science teacher at the science and art
department of South Kensington. Claimed
to have been a former headmistress of
the Royal Academy of Inverness, but an
archivist at the school denied having any
records of her as a faculty member.
Misc. Information Publishers were Macmillan and Co. which

have extensive archives, but apparently
no record of Johnson.
She published a response to critics of her
novel in Nature on Oct. 12, 1892, and at
this time, she lived in 52 Lower Sloane
Street, S.W. (London, almost certainly).
Sunshine - novel 1892

Link
“Sunshine” - article published in Nature 1892

Link
Lectures to Little Folks - gave lectures, N/A - prior to 1892

unknown if ever written and published
Tony Kedzierski
Response
Your Name: Tony Kedzierski
Author Name(s): Anne Kendrick Benedict
● Answer: The resource I found most useful in my search was Ancestry.com. Being able to
see all of the biographical information not only on my author but also her family really
allowed me to add more and more data points to my search criteria in order to narrow
down search results and fact check information to make sure I was consistently talking
about the correct Anne Kendrick Benedict. One unique source that I found very useful in
my search was the 19th Century Index, a database that has information on anything and
everything related to the 19th century, especially authors. This particular source helped
me to find publications written by my author that I was unable to find anywhere else. This
source is easily used just by inserting your author’s name into the search criteria and a
host of information will then appear on them.
● Answer: My search began with looking through the Ancestry database for information
pertaining to my author. THis allowed me to see the basic information pertaining to my
author. This data then allowed me to enter in various information into google searches
and database searched that helped to narrow down my search results. When I found
information that connected her to an organization, I would then attempt to contact
someone at that organization in order to see if they had any records pertaining to my
author. This whole time I kept track of my information in a Microsoft Notes page, copying
links whenever I visited them and having a table of useful links and dead-end links, as
well as citing all of the information that I came across as I went.
● Answer: Whenever I hit a dead end, I would just attempt to use different combinations of
data that I had already gathered and enter them into my search (for example, if a
combination of the author’s name and book title did not yield anything, then I would
change my search to the author’s name and the date of publication in order to see if that
would produce any new sources).
● Answer: If I had more time I would probably continue attempting to contact sources that I
believe I could have gained information from. I had found my author’s address, so
maybe I could have contacted the current residents of her home and asked if they had
any records about the home when she had lived there. During this process I wish I would
have focused less on the information pertaining to her life and attempted to gather more
information related to her writings.
of advice!
● Answer: Spell your author’s name correctly! I was given a misspelled version of my
author’s name right off the bat so I had no luck at the beginning of my search to find
relevant information. Once I figured out that I was given a misspelled form of her name,
then I was able to find accurate data pertaining to my author.
Author Tab
● Write a 2 sentence summary (“blurb”) of your author: Anne Kendrick Benedict was a
writer of Children’s scientific and religious writings. She always had a gift for writing and
continued to do it from at least college to late in her life.
Birth date April 26 1851
Birth place Rochester, NY
Death date Unknown
Death Place Unknown
Known family Mother: Anne Elizabeth (Hopkins)

Benedict
Father: Asahel Clark
Children: Mary K., Howard, Florence L.,
Stanley R., Agnes E. Benedict
Married to______ Wayland Benedict
Marriage date 1873
School Elmira Female College
Misc. Information Lived in Cincinnati most of her life, wrote

the commencement speech for
graudation
My Wonder-Story 1888
The Hathaways’ Sister ?
Centa, The Child Violinist ?
The Island Story ?
The Fisherman’s Daughter ?
The Enchanted Deer ?
The Home Circle April 18 1883
How We Are Made April 11 1883
"Demosthenes and St. Paul" ?

Mary Kate Gale
Response
Your Name: Mary Kate Gale
Author Name(s): Ann Murry/Murray
● Answer: My most useful resource was EBSCO’s Academic Search Complete. This
yielded an article from an academic journal that provided new primary sources about
events in Murry’s life (such as her school opening). Also, the article gave analysis of how
Murry’s work in science education fit into the culture of girls’ education at the time. When
using this search, begin with just your author’s name. However, because many of the
authors’ names were very common for the time, it is a good idea to include the name of
their most famous work in the search if the preliminary name info doesn’t return
anything. Their place of birth or other family members would probably not yield very
much information, as most academic journal articles will focus on their work and its
impacts rather than their personal life.
● Answer: I started with a Google search, found my author’s preexisting (and terrible)
Wikipedia article, and used the citations from that article to find more information. I found
the names of several books in these citations, which gave me the majority of the
information. As I was working, I kept a Word document called “Unit 1 project log,” where
I wrote bullet points about what I did each day. Even if I searched a database and didn’t
get any useful information, I still made a note so I would know not to check it again.
● Answer: At the beginning of our research project, Karen Viars gave us a PowerPoint
presentation on the different resources that Georgia Tech’s library had to offer for us.
When I had exhausted all the information I could find from the books in my author’s
Wikipedia page, I started blindly searching in these databases, and one of these random
searches yielded the most interesting information I got. When you feel stuck, choose a
completely random place to start searching all over again - you might get nothing, or you
might get really lucky.
● Answer: I reached out to a professor who had written about Murry, but he never
responded to my inquiry. With more time, I would send him another email and see if I
could get in further contact with him to see what information he had. Also, I was able to
procure copies of all but one of Murry’s books. If I had more time, I would search a little
more deeply into where I could find it - I know it’s out there somewhere! Additionally, I
spent quite a bit of time reading through literary journal reviews (from the time period
when she worked, not modern journals) of Ann Murry’s work, none of which yielded any
information about her personal life. There was a ton of information out there about what
Murry wrote, and I wish I had spent less time caught up in that and more looking into the
few family members I could find.
of advice!
● Answer: Keep track of failure as well as success! You can get full credit for the project
whether or not you find information, so it’s very important to keep meticulous track of
everything you try. Also, keep track of your Twitter account. It’s very easy to just Tweet
once or twice a week and then realize that you have 20 Tweets left to send with 1 week
to go. Make some sort of checklist or spreadsheet where you plan the minimum number
of Tweets you’ll send a week and keep track of whether you meet those goals or not.
Author Tab
Ann Murry was a late-eighteenth century author and poet who wrote educational texts
for young girls. She lived in London and made her living as a private tutor and
schoolteacher for the wealthy.
Birth date Christened May 8, 1750
Birth place London, England (Christened at St Mary-

at-Hill Church)
Death date N/A

Death Place N/A
Known family ● Parents: Isaac Murry (wine

merchant); Elizabeth Murry
● SIsters: Sarah Murry; Jane Murry
Married to______ No record of marriage
Marriage date N/A
School Education unknown; opened boarding

school in Hampstead with her sisters in
1785
Other profession (if applicable) Private tutor/schoolteacher
Misc. Information ● Associated with London bookseller

Charles Dilly (helped open her
school; printed many of her books)
● Tutor for famous figures such as
Sir William Pulteney’s daughter,
Laura, and Princess Amelia
Mentoria: or, the Young Ladies Instructor 1778
Poems on Various Subjects 1779
A Concise History of the Kingdoms of 1783

Israel and Judah (2 vol.)
The Sequel to Mentoria: or, the Young 1799

Ladies Instructor
Mentorian Lectures on Sacred and Moral 1809

Subjects (8 vol.)
An Abridgement of the History of France 1815

Stella Yang
Response
Your Name: Stella Yang
Author Name(s): Mrs. Mary C. Best
● My most useful resources were Find My Past and Ancestry. After I found something to
work off of, I searched through Ancestry for other people living in the same household as
my author, then looked up those people on Find My Past to get more specific name,
then searched that name on Ancestry to find more information. Since both resources
provided information on people in the past, but they offered different types of information
(i.e. full name, location, time period, birth/baptism/death dates, etc.), it was extremely
helpful to use both for cross-referencing information.
● I started with a google search on my author and her book. It lead me to other books that
she wrote. Based on those books and their publishers and the location of those
publishers I tried to find an identity for my author. This is when the rabbit holes started. I
found several people with her name, but they were all in the wrong time period, and
when someone with her name matched up and time period, I would go searching for
records, but since I didn’t have a confirmed location many of the people I found were
incorrect.
● Next, I tried to use Ancestry, and after a lot of digging around, going through, and ruling
out a lot of people, I found someone that seemed promising. I then checked the
information with a historical society and confirmed it was my author. Then I used Find
My Past, Ancestry, and the historical society to compile most of my information.
● I recorded all of this on a OneNote document. I had a checklist/bullet point type format
for organization. Essentially each lead would have a hierarchy of the subleads that were
found under them, and those would have a hierarchy as well. When a lead was complete
used up or became a dead-end I would check off the box so I know which places no
longer had information and which still did. All of the leads were then further organized
chronologically so I could see the progression of what I’ve tried.
● When I hit a dead-end I would refer to my checklist and try to find another lead that still
could offer information. When they were all checked off, I would try a completely different
approach: search something new on Google, or use a new resource, or come from
another angle (i.e. going from looking at her works, to looking at the time period or
location, to looking at ancestral records)
● If I had more time I would have tried a couple more approaches, and chase down some
of my leads even further, because by the end of the project there were still some
unchecked boxes that could have offered more information. There were some people
that I could still contact, and others that I could try to reach again because they didn’t
respond.
of advice!
● Log EVERYTHING, you never know when some small detail that you overlooked
could lead to a gold mine
Author Tab
Mary C Best published 14 works in her lifetime and was the sole supporter of her children
starting at the age of 47. She lived in Worcestershire and Leamington, England, and started her
writing career as a means to support her children after her husband’s passing.
Birth date October 8th, 1801
Baptized on August 13, 1802
Birth place St. Helen’s Worcestershire, England

Baptized at Mathon, Worcestershire,
Endland
Death date 1883

Death Place Warwick, Warwickshire, England
Known family Frances Elizabeth Best (daughter)

● Birth: 1828 in St. John’s,
Worcester, England
● Baptism: Sept 18, 1828 in St.
John’s, Worcester, England
● Death: 1862 in Martley,
Worcestershire, England
Sarah Sophia Best or Sarah S. Ballard

(daughter)
Worcester, England
● Baptism: Dec 17, 1830 in St.
● Married: 1871-1881
○ Husband: Allan Robert
Ballard
■ Birth: 1850
○ Adopted Son: Abraham Hy
Ballard
■ Birth: 1878
Lydia Catherine Best (daughter)

Worcester, England
● Baptism: Oct 11, 1832 in St.
● Married: Jul 23, 1885
○ Husband: Samuel Jeffrey
Elmina Mary Ann Best (daughter)

● Birth: 1837 in Claines,
● Baptism: Jan 23, 1837 in
Worcester, Worcestershire,
England
● Death: 1852
Thomas Francis Best (son)

● Birth: 1839 in Shrawley,
Worcester, England
● Baptized: Jan 23, 1839 in
Shrawley, Worcester, England
● Death: Sometime between 1841-
1851
Married to Thomas Best

● Death: 1848 in Shrawley,
Marriage date May 17, 1827 @ Mathon, Worcestershire,

England
School N/A
Other profession (if applicable) Mortgagor (probably just means she was
paying the mortgage on the house
because husband died and only had
daughters so no source of income)
Misc. Information Name before marriage: Mary Catherine

Cliffe
Name after marriage: Mary C Best
Name she published under: Mrs. M. C.
Best
Lived in: 19 Willow Street, Worcester,

England
List any known works by your authors (include publication dates if possible)
● 1833 – The Mother’s Jewels
● 1840 – Tracts on the Parables
● 1846 to 1849/55’ – Tracts on the Old Testament Histories
● 1847 – Memoir of Valentine de T-, Son of the Baron de T-
● 1849 to 1852 – Tracts on the New Testament Histories
○ She signed “Dodoak, Shrawley” - confirms identity
● 1849 – The Works of Creation Illustrated, or, Six Thousand Years Ago
● 1851 – New Testament Histories
● 1851 – The Casket Rifled, or, Guilt and its Consequences
● 1851 – The History of a family Bible, A Tale
● 1860 – Abroad and How to Live There. A Narrative of Three Years’ Residence in
Germany and Switzerland
● 1862 – The Home of Poverty Made Rich
○ Genre: Fiction and Juvenile Works
● 1862 – Jessie’s Last Words
● 1862 – A Message to All: A Word for the Exhibition
● 1864 – Mars Doble: A Tale of Virginia
Jonathan Womack
Response
Your Name: Jonathan Womack
Author Name(s): Julia Perkins Ballard
● Answer: My most useful resource was librarians and historians. In particular, the
Berkshire Athenaeum local library provided lots of useful information. Additionally, I
reached out to colleges where my author’s spouse was employed.
● Answer: Of course, I started off my research with simple Google searches. Those initial
searches provided new bits of information that led to new discoveries on the World Wide
Web. After I had a substantial amount of biographical information, I reached out to real
historians and archivists at places relevant to my author.
● Answer: When I hit a dead end, I took a break. Sometimes, you can’t just force your way
to find new answers. Taking a break from difficult research enabled my mind to be
refocused and explore new areas.
● Answer: If I had more time, I could have reached out to more libraries and colleges
where Julia Perkins Ballard lived. I think all the steps I took played an important role in
discovering the information about my author.
of advice!
● Answer: Future students, don’t worry! This project may be daunting, especially because
it may be your first project in college. As long as you give it your best shot, an honest
best shot, then you have nothing to worry about.
Author Tab
Julia Perkins Ballard was a children’s science fiction author that had prominent literary
works pertaining to nature, entomology, and the temperance movement. Her husband,
Rev.Dr.Addison Ballard, was a prominent minister and scholar.
Birth date March 27th, 1828
Birth place Athens, Ohio
Death date April 21st, 1894
Death Place New York, New York
Known family David Pratt and Julia Perkins Pratt
Married to______ Addison Ballard
Marriage date August 7th, 1851
School N/A
Other profession (if applicable) Writer, Poet
Misc. Information She had three children named Harlon,

Winnifred, and Julia
Among the Moths and Butterflies 1890
Insect Lives, or Born in Prison 1879

Broken Rock 1873
Building Stones 1871
The Scarlet Oak and other Poems
There’s No Light in the Window 1867
Jem and Velvet 187-?
The Lost Estate 1882
The Little Golden Keys
Pleasant Paths for Little Feet

Tiffany Jeng
Response
Your Name: Tiffany Jeng
Author Name(s): Helen Stevens Conant
● Answer: The most useful resource for me was Ancestry.com. Being able to narrow my
searches based on her date of birth helped me to find the real Helen S. Conant, and
once I found a historical records of her, it was easy to find more. Ancestry.com has a
“Suggested Records” section that provides link to other records of the same person,
including ones are misspelled or are from before marriage (i.e. include the maiden
name). Ancestry.com lead me to another useful resource, a book entitled Twentieth
Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, which I found a copy of on
Archive.org.
● Answer: Google was a good place to start. Little details, such as the name of the
publisher, can be good leads, and adding those details to the Google search help refine
the results. I fell down a “rabbit hole” on Ancestry.com because of the “Suggested
Records” section, which took me to more and more records of my author. I kept two
Word documents to keep track of my information. One had a numbered list of the
resources I used in the order I found them, and the other had a list of the information I
found (with a reference to the number of the source from the other document).
● Answer: I usually tried to refine my search with different keywords. If “Helen Stevens
Conant” didn’t work, I tried “Helen S. Conant.” If that didn’t work, I tried different
databases and turned to Twitter to see if other students tweeted about new resources.
● Answer: If I had more time, I would explore more of the databases on the GT Library
website. I didn’t refine my searches enough for most of them, so I wasted time by
looking at every results to see if it was helpful. That wasn’t an efficient way to find
information, so I would go back and try those again with more specific searches. I would
also try to research my author’s husband to try to find information about their family.
of advice!
● Answer: Follow every lead as far as possible. For example, if you know who the
publisher is, try to find background information about the company. If it still exists, try
contacting them. Research your author’s family. Try to use every little detail you know
about your author to find more information.
Author Tab
Helen S. Conant was an American author and poet, best known for writing The Butterfly
Hunters. In addition, she contributed many articles and poems to various magazines and
periodicals.
Birth date Oct. 9, 1839
Birth place Methuen , Massachusetts
Death date Apr. 17, 1899
Death Place Brooklyn, New York
Known family Thomas Peters Conant (son), Abiel

Stevens (father), Charlotte Peters
Stevens (mother), Abiel and Abigail
Archer Stevens (paternal grandparents),
John and Elizabeth Farrington Davis
Peters (maternal grandparents), John
Stevens and Andrew Peters (ancestors)
Married to______ Samuel Stillman Conant
Marriage date June 10, 1858

School Governess and private tutors
Other profession (if applicable) Identified her occupation as “Keeping

House” in 1870 Federal Census, editor for
Harper’s Bazar
Misc. Information
The Butterfly Hunters 1868
A Primer of German Literature 1877
A Primer of Spanish Literature 1878
Translation of The Ancient Cities of the 1887

New World
“A ramble in Central Park” (article in Oct 1879

Harper’s Magazine)
“Watch-words” (poem in Harper’s Aug 1879

Magazine)
“Picturesque Edinburgh” (article in Apr 1879

“Birds and plumage” (article in Harper’s Aug 1878

Magazine)
“Kitchen and dining-room” (article in Feb 1877

“Old German love song (thirteenth Apr 1878

century)” (poem in Harper’s Magazine)
Bryce Smith
Response
Your Name: Bryce Smith
Author Name(s): Mrs. William Allbut (Sophia Mort)
● Answer: The resource that I found most useful was Dr. Richard Talbot. He is associated
with the Penkhull Historical Society, a group that contains many experts on the history of
an area where my author briefly lived. He was able to give me pictures and
correspondence between my author’s husband and the owner of the house where they
lived. Also, he provided me with photocopies of advertisements for the girls’ school that
my author ran.
● Answer: First, I did a general search on Google. I was able to find a couple copies of my
author’s book Much in Little: A Compendium of Facts & Information, but nothing else. I
read all of these sources to identify more possible leads that I could follow (e.g. publisher
information, dates, places, religious information, etc.). This is the general format that I
followed throughout the entirety of my research project. I kept track of the places that I
had already searched and the information that I had found by recording everything on a
Google Doc. I was lead down a “rabbit hole” when I followed a lead about where I
thought my author might have lived. This lead me to an obscure pottery website that
contained bibliographical information and sources about my author, which I was able to
verify on Ancestry.com.
● Answer: I hit two major dead ends during the course of my projects: finding information
about my author’s publisher and printer. Both of these firms seemed like they could lead
me to promising information, but I later found out that both were shut down. While hitting
dead ends was tough, but I found it useful to simply move on to the next piece of
information. By not getting caught up on a certain lead, I was able to save time and
research more information.
● Answer: If I had more time, I would have emailed more historical societies. A large part
of the most interesting information that I found during my research was provided to me
by these organizations. I feel like most of the steps that I took were helpful. Even if I hit a
dead end in my research I was able to eliminate a potential source of information for
future researchers.
of advice!
● Answer: Color coding the information that you find is extremely helpful! I color coded my
sources by both their reliability and their “genera” (e.g. source documents, emails, etc.)
and was able to save a ton of time when putting together my final portfolio.
Author Tab
Sophia Mort (Mrs. William Allbut) was a 19th-century, British children's author who wrote
both a textbook for girls' schools and a Christian short story. Additionally, she served as
the principal of a ladies' school for young girls that she ran out of various locations
throughout her life.
Birth date September 4th, 1807
Birth place Nottingham, England
Death date September 13th, 1882
Death Place Hendon, Middlesex, England
Known family Rev. James Mort (father)

Dorothy Mort (mother)
Thomas Allbut (father-in-law)
Sydney Allbut (mother-in-law)
Sir Thomas Clifford Allbut (son of Sophia
Mort's husband's brother)
William Sidney Allbut (child)
Elizabeth Ann Allbut (child)
Thomas Henry Allbut (child)
Sophia Jane Allbut (child)
Mary Dorothea Allbut (child)
Helen Maria Allbut (child)
James Allbut (child)
Married to______ William Allbut
Marriage date May 3rd, 1837
School N/A
Other profession (if applicable) Principal of ladies’ school
"Look to the End." - The Youth's 1849

Magazine
Much in Little: A Compendium of 1859

Facts & Information
Oscar Aguilar
Response
Your Name: Oscar Aguilar
Author Name(s): Eleanor Hughes-Gibb
● Answer: I know that Ancestry.com has been mentioned already but for my research it
was a true gold mine. 95% of the research I did on Eleanor Hughes-Gibb was done
through their database and I believe I have some unique tips on how new researchers
can use the website most effectively. For one, a simple search for the person’s name
and approximate location and any date at all can be very powerful. I got lucky because
my author has two last names, which narrowed the results to just one person, but one
can also use other things like the location of the publisher of their book(s) and the
date(s) of publication in order to narrow their searches. Another important thing to keep
in mind is that if you are researching a woman, her last name likely changed when she
married. This turned out to be crucial for me because by searching for the name her
books were published under, I only found records of her after she was married such as
baptismal records for her children and death and probate records. Be sure to look for a
maiden name. Finally, searching for the person’s family members instead can yield
positive results. Records such as census documents are likely to be under the name of
the male head of house. Because of this, I found much more information on where my
author was lived by searching for her father and husband.
● Answer: Personally, my research process was a bit all over the place. I was fortunate to
be constantly finding multiple leads at a time, and was often confronted with the choice
of which to investigate first. My strategy was to keep tabs open that had leads that I had
yet to explore, so that I could come back to them once I’d exhausted the others. There
were many times where I fell down the rabbit hole of just one lead and it would take me
almost a week to come back to the tens of other leads I’d found on the way down.
● Answer: The biggest wall I hit during my research process was trying to connect the
Eleanor Hughes-Gibb that I found on Ancestry.com to the name on the books. For a long
time, the only thing I had to support that they were the same person was their location
(London, England) and the time period (early 1800s). However, I did not feel confident
enough to say they were on and the same just based on the fact that she lived near
London and would’ve been in her 40s-60s when the books were published. I tried
several strategies, which I would recommend to anybody else in the same situation. I
first looked for geneologies for her family considering she was of wealthy status. I also
tried looking through censuses for her occupation, but it was always left blank. Finally
though, I searched for her name in conjunction with the address I suspected she
published her books from and was able to find an article on nature.com by her which
listed the very same address for her.
● Answer: Given more time I might have tried to actually read some of her books in order
to supplement her biography with more information on her literary style and influences. I
also wasted some time trying to get past websites with paywalls that I suspected had
useful information. I was instead able to find the same information on other sites like
Ancestry.
of advice!
● Answer: Keep all your tabs with different bits of information open!! If your browser
doesn’t save the tabs when the browser is closed, save the links on a word
document so that you can always get back to them.
Author Tab
○ Eleanor Mary Hughes-Gibb (1859-1947) was a British author of novels and
science textbooks for children. She was well educated thanks to her wealthy status
and turned the lessons she gave her children on botany and other topics into books
for all children to learn from.
Birth date May 26, 1858
Birth place Inverness-Shire, Scotland
Death date October 30, 1947
Death Place Surrey, England
Known family Mary Ann Pomeroy (mother)

William Knox Wigram (father)
Henry Francis Wigram (brother)
William Arthur Wigram (brother)
Helen Isabelle Wigram (sister)
Madeline Clara Wigram (sister)
Dorothy Frances Hughes-Gibb (daughter)
Gwendolen Margaret Hughes-Gibb
(daughter)
Charles Pomeroy Hughes-Gibb (son)
Aubrey Patrick Hughes-Gibb (son)
Harold Francis Hughes-Gibb (son)
Married to______ Francis James Hughes-Gibb
Marriage date April 1880
School N/A
Residence The Manor House, Tarrant Gunville, Dorset,

England
Years active 1896-1930

How plants live and work : a simple 1896
introduction to real life in the plant-world,
based on lessons originally given to
country children
The Colours of Flowers Blooming Out of 1897

Season
The Making of a Daisy; "Wheat out of 1898

Lilies;" and other studies in plant-life and
evolution. A popular introduction to botany,
etc.
The Soul of a Villan 1905
His Sister. A Novel. 1908
Gilbert Ray. [A Novel.]. 1914
You Cannot Fall 1922
Songs & Thoughts in Youth & Age 1924
The life-force in the plant world, or 1928

creative nature
The Life-force in the inorganic world 1930

Dead End Strategies Content
Generic Solutions
Read through your author’s book.
Most books will have information about the publisher, date of the publication, publication
location, and other key information that could be extrapolated to find more information about the
author. Especially in the Victorian Era, publication location could be used to narrow down the
author’s location as they frequently used publishers near their hometown.
Also authors sometimes include dedication pages, short biographical introductions, book
reviews, additional publications, or self portraits which could give information about family
member names, job titles, or other relevant information that was considered important to the
author..
“Finally, my best strategy was actually to read through my author’s books because she put small pieces of
biographical information in her books.” - Katie Roberts
Search Engine Strategies

When you hit a dead-end, pick a new search engine or database and try from there. Different
databases specialize in different subject areas and can provide a fresh, different set of results to
the same input words. Check the Georgia Tech list of databases from the library, the Library of
Congress, or Google Books.
“When I had exhausted all the information I could find... I started blindly searching in [Georgia Tech Library]
databases, and one of these random searches yielded the most interesting information I got... Choose a completely
random place to start searching all over again - you might get nothing, or you might get really lucky.” - Mary Kate
Gale
Use different combinations of information and plug it into the search engine. Remember that
different punctuations can tailor your search request.
Quotations: “___” searches for the entire phrase as a whole
Minus Sign: -___ excludes the specific word
Asterisk: Largest * in the world. Use the asterisk when looking for a fill-in-the-blank word
Or: ___ OR ___ searches for either term
“Whenever I hit a dead end, I would just attempt to use different combinations of data that I had already gathered and
enter them into my search (for example, if a combination of the author’s name and book title did not yield anything,
then I would change my search to the author’s name and the date of publication...).” - Tony Kedzierski
I can’t find my author’s publications.
If a Google Search does not yield your author’s book, look through other search engines (look at
Search Engine Strategies). The best place to go would be the Library of Congress, which is the
national library that holds a record of millions of published works in the States and around the
world. A search for an author’s name will yield publications written by that author, articles within
publications written by that author, and other works that used that author as a cited source.
“I hit a dead end when I was unable to find the first few writing pieces I was looking for. A quick search...on Haithi
Trust lead me to a copy of this novel. ...This helped me find some pieces written by Ellsworth”. - Neha Badam
“I had combed through Google searching for anything related to my author and had only found one published work by
her. I remembered about the Library of Congress and gave it a shot. I never would’ve found the 3 other works and
articles written by her!” - Benjamin Ahn
Social Media Dead-ends

It’s Follow Friday or Scholar Sunday, but I can’t find any worthy Twitter scholars or
institutions to follow or tweet about.
Don’t just search for “Victorian Women Authors” or other generic search terms. Most likely,
those input words will only yield generic results. Most scholars don’t specialize in general topics
and instead more specialized fields within Women Authors. Try thinking of your own subfields
within Women Authors and use those search terms (ie. “Women’s lit enviro” for those with
authors who wrote about plants or environmental topics).
I’m receiving non-responsive email replies. They’re either not responding at all or they’re
responding with something along the lines of “we’re too busy at the moment” or “don’t
have the resources to help you”.
There are multiple approaches you can take. The first is to realize that perhaps you contacted
the wrong source, and they truly don’t have the information you need.
“My author worked at a school that eventually became West Chester University. In retrospect, emailing their College
of Liberal Arts and writing in the generic “Leave Us a Comment” webpage wasn’t the best move.” -Benjamin Ahn
The second is to re-email. There’s a difference between being forceful and asking directly, but
politely. You can’t get what you don’t ask for.
The third is to email another department of that same institution. Instead of emailing the general
head department, where the email could get easily lost, try emailing the Historical department or
Literature Department. They will more likely have specialists that would be happy to assist you
too.
Location/Family Dead-ends
I found two documents that state my author lived in two different places. What do I do?
There are two outcomes that could occur - either one or both of the documents is wrong, or
they’re both correct and your author simply moved during her lifetime. The key is to follow both
leads and to look for other pieces of evidence to verify one of the documents. The best way to
do this would be to search for your author in junction with each location in Ancestry.com and
other search engines. If this yields any potential results, make sure to look for any piece of
information that can link the search result to your author.
I can’t find my author on ancestry.com. There are so many search results, and I don’t
have enough information to narrow down which person is the correct one. I don’t have
time to sift through every person either. What do I do?
Understand that it will be very difficult to narrow down the exact person, as Ancestry.com
doesn’t have information on every person that existed on the planet - they only have public
records that could provide information about a person. With this in mind, you have to anticipate
where your author’s information will be most likely to show up on a document.
A couple strategies to do so…

- Guess their date of birth. Take a wild guess and in the Ancestry.com search bar, include
a date range.
- Guess and check potential locations. Start with the location that their book was
published.
- Use the Ancestry Message Board: https://www.ancestry.com/boards/
It’s a forum where people around the world post information about their own relatives.
Often times, the people that post have a piece of information about their ancestor and
are posting on this forum to see if anyone else knows more about their ancestor and
wants to trade information. They also leave their contact information so that you can
contact them directly as well.
- Try to find ANY leads and then narrow it down. Also make sure to record the search
inputs that you used to avoid frustrating repeat searches.
- Use Familysearch.org!
Ancestry is a better resource to use once you’ve collected some information since it requires
sifting through several results.
“‘Amy Johnson’ was a common name, and there were no exact time and location matches to the few address I had
for her. Everytime I became stuck, I...choose another research path to follow. I did not waste too much time trying to
get the perfect information out of one source. Instead, I tried to follow as many different leads as possible. “- Maxina
Sheft
Verification Dead-ends
I found two pieces of evidence that have my author’s name, but I’m not sure if they’re
referencing the same person in both documents.
There are two main ways to go about doing this.
You can contact the original author of each document and ask them about who they were
referencing in each document. You could then gather enough information about each person in
the document to determine with some degree of certainty that the persons referenced are the
same.
The more feasible method would be to find a third document that verifies the original two
documents and serves as a connection point between them. Think of this third document as the
“middle man” document - the original documents strengthen the validity of the third document
and the third document strengthen the validity of the other two documents. Take this student’s
example...
“The biggest wall I hit during my research process was trying to connect the Eleanor Hughes-Gibb that I found on
Ancestry.com to the name on the books. The only thing I had to support that they were the same person was their
location (London, England) and the time period (early 1800s)... I searched for her name in conjunction with [her
suspected] address...and was able to find an article on nature.com by her which listed the very same address for
her.” - Oscar Aguilar
The “middle man” document was the nature.com article that contained the address and was
published by the same author. There is now evidence that proves that the original London,
England address does in fact refer to this student’s author.
Other scenarios include connecting

- Two published works written by someone with the same name: look at publication details
(location, date, company) for any similarities.
- An Ancestry.com result and the author name: Use family member names, relative date
ranges for when your author lived, census documents, etc as the “middle man”
document.
- A potential location and the author name: look at publication location of the author’s
book. Look for occupational records, property records according to the last name or a
male relative.
- A birth/death date and the author name: look for local obituaries that have a matching
location of the author
Vikas Barevadia
Response
Your Name: Vikas Barevadia
Author Name(s): Fannie A. Deane
● Answer: The most useful resource was Ancestry. It provided me with most of my
biographical information, such as Birth date/place, death date/place, family members,
occupation. It was especially useful in that it provided primary sources, such as
marriage/census documents whenever possible. This increases the credibility of the
source and allowed for cross referencing. This brings me into a tip: cross reference
everything you find to ensure the person you are researching is actually the author you
are looking into. The name duplications can get complicated, so you want to eliminate
any ambiguity in your research.
● Answer: When I found an initial lead through a source such as ancestry, I would then
turn to a database for more information, but with new search words that the lead
contained. For instance, if I find out the birthplace or a family member’s name, I would
run the new information through a database to find further information. Since this
typically did not bring any new information to the surface, I would then look to contact
professionals to see if they would have an information, or if they know where I go look. I
would look at an artifact that I initially found and would contact prominent universities
that study similar topics. For example, my author was from Boston, and the Harvard
Library had a stamp on a genealogy book that my author was mentioned in, so I would
contact them and move further in the sources the archivist would tell me to look. To keep
track of my progress, I would keep a google doc dedicated to pasting links, facts,
sources, and a to-do list when I need to follow up on something.
● Answer: Most of the databases that were mentioned in class: C19, Hathitrust, Worldcat,
BritishLibrary, etc., gave no new information other than a list of books my author wrote.
Every time I hit a dead end, I would go to another database and search, using first the
same keywords. If that did not turn up any useful results, I would try changing the
keywords.
● Answer: If I had more time, I would contact more libraries and universities that could
potentially have information on my author. Given the time constraints, and the time
required for a response, I was only able to contact and hear back from three libraries. I
would also look into county historical societies, because I heard that could be a good
source of information.
of advice!
● Answer: Keep an organized chart that logs literally everything you do in regards to the
research project. Even if you search just one source as simple as google scholar include
it and what you find. Links are as helpful as possible so you can go back and find
exactly what you found when you searched. This also lets you document your findings
and the “dead-ends,” giving a lot of source material for a good bibliography at the end of
the project. If you cannot keep a lot of tabs open, this will be a way to keep tabs
consolidated into a google doc.
Author Tab
● Write a 2 sentence summary (“blurb”) of your author: Fannie A. Deane was a widowed
school teacher who lived in Edgartown, Dukes, Massachusetts. She also wrote a handful
of children’s science books about plants and nature.
Birth date 1842
Birth place Boston, MA
Death date Aug 8, 1918
Death Place Edgartown, MA
Known family Father - Hebron Vincent, Mother- Lydia

Vincent, Husband- Charles A. Deane,
Son- Arthur Deane.
Married to______ Charles A. Deane.
Marriage date Dec 27, 1863
School n/a
Other profession (if applicable) Teacher
Misc. Information Was widowed and owned a house
Little Talks About Plants 1884
National Flowers 1891
Tiny Folk in Red and Black 1888
Wonder from Sea and Shore 1896
Seashore Chats and Beach Stores 1885

Camila Padilla
Response
Your Name: Camila Padilla
Author Name(s): Charlotte Sanders
● Answer: The only source that was of any use was Ancestry. I think that this is the first
source that you should consult.
● Answer: I started with a google search and then looked at the databases. I did this
process with different terms all over again. I kept track by writing down all the terms that
I was searching and writing down a list of results that came up, pasting links also. I also
wrote a list of databases and new terms that I could search for.
● Answer: Go back and look for other ways or change the terms that I was looking for.
Broaden my search.
● Answer: I would have tried to validate the possible documents that I found.
of advice!
● Answer: Do set expectations too high for yourself and don’t beat yourself up if you keep
hitting bick walls.
Author Tab
● Write a 2 sentence summary (“blurb”) of your author: I have nothing on her.
Birth date N/A
Birth place N/A
Death date N/A
Death Place N/A
Known family N/A

Marriage date N/A
School N/A
The little Family volume 1 1799
Poems on various occasions 1787
Poems on various subjects 1787
The little Family volume 2 1799
The little family second edition 1800

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Mary Kate Gale

Dead End Strategies Content

Your Name (so it shows up in table of contents)

Other profession (if applicable)

Title of work Year of Publication

Birth date 1781

Birth place Ireland

Death date 1863

Death Place Dublin, Ireland

Known family Daniel Beaufort (father), Mary Waller

Married to______ unmarried

Marriage date unmarried

Other profession (if applicable) No other profession

Dialogues on Entomology in which the 1819

An Essay upon the State of Architecture 1828

Birth place Rockingham, New Hampshire

Death date 12 August 1870

Death Place Middlesex, Massachusetts

Known family ● Parents: Joseph Adams Janvrin

Married to______ Oliver Ellsworth

School Exeter Female Seminary

Other profession (if applicable) N/A

Misc. Information ● Her husband was a publisher

Title of work Year of Publication

Started writing for The Boston Journal 1848

Wrote biographical articles for Cypress 1857

Peace, or the Stolen Will 1857

The Juvenile Miscellany 1858

Started writing for Godey’s Lady’s Book & 1858

The Youth’s Cabinet (introduction for 1858

An Hour with the Children 1860

Birth place Warner, NH

Death date 1/13/1917

Death Place Warner, NH

Known family Harrison Gray Harris (attorney, father);

Married to______ N/A

Marriage date N/A

Other profession (if applicable) N/A

Misc. Information She lived her whole life in Warner and

Title of work Year of Publication

Old School-Days 1886

American Authors for Young Folks 1887

Wild Flowers and Where They Grow 1883

Pleasant Authors for Young Folks 1884

Dooryard Folks and a Winter Garden 1883

Little Folks’ Every Day Book: Rhymes and 1881

Among the Shakers 1877

Queer People 1886

Birth place Roxbury, Massachusetts

Death date November 6th, 1922

Death Place Massachusetts

Known family Father: John Augustus Bolles

Other profession (if applicable)

Title of work Year of Publication

Overhead; Or, what Harry and Nelly 1878

“My Boy” (article in the periodical Merry’s 1868-1871

“Evening Rest” (Poem in Harper’s 1869

UpHill and DownDale 1886

Nelly Marlow in Washington 1886

A Norway Summer 1897

Lotus Bay, a Summer on Cape Cod 1889

Birth place Houghton Le Spring, Durham, England

Death date December 1st, 1923