Research

Posts collected here trace how the study is being done: the questions being asked, the problems encountered, and the approaches used to solve them. It is more of a working notebook than a finished reference.

What you’ll find here

• Reflections on research decisions, such as which sources to prioritise or how to interpret conflicting evidence.
• Notes on specific problems and how I tackled them, for example teasing apart people with similar names or tracking families between parishes.
• Occasional updates on tools and techniques I’m trying, including my experiments with AI in supporting this study.

How this differs from the Odiham Locality Guide

The Odiham Locality Guide is intended as relatively static background: it describes the history of the place and the main record sets available for studying it, and will change only occasionally as I refine or expand it. The Research posts are more reflective. They record what I am working on at particular moments, the lines of reasoning I followed, and lessons learned along the way. Where the Locality Guide aims to be evergreen context, the Research section captures the ongoing journey of the project.