QuickSheet: The Historical Biographer's Guide to Cluster Research (the FAN Principle) by Elizabeth Shown Mills

In this QuickSheet Elizabeth Mills introduces us to the concept of "Cluster Research" based on the FAN principle, the idea being that to prove identity, origin, and parentage individuals must be studied in the context of their FAN club--family, associates, and neighbors. Historical information, she says, is like real estate: the true value of any piece of information is unknown until it is put into community context. To apply the FAN principle in order to establish a set of facts concerning identity, parentage, and origin, several questions must be asked: Who are the known members of the FAN club? What did they do together? When did they have this association? Where did this association occur? And why did these people interact? Since most individuals left comparatively few records, the answers we seek to specific research questions may not appear in any surviving record, but by expanding our research to include family, friends, neighbors, and associates we increase the number of resou