Hello! This course guide has been created for students enrolled in China, Japan, and Europe: A Non-Eurocentric Approach to World History, 1400s-1800s. In this guide, you will find several resources intended to help with your family history research project.

Below is a description of the pages found in the menu above:

• Research Guides- Lists of resources when you can find sources for your research
  • History Research Guide -- Much of what you will likely need can be found here.
• Research Tutorials
  • Know the Difference Between Primary and Secondary Sources
  • Advance Search Tips
  • Search for Library Resources Efficiently
  • Find Peer Reviewed/Scholarly Articles
  • Use Reference Lists to Find More Sources
• Conducting Interviews -- Tips for how to conduct interviews with your family and others
• Citing Resources
  • Chicago Notes-Bibliography Guide
  • Use a Citation Generator Safely
  • Zotero User Guide

Your assignment. From the syllabus.

All students must write a seven-page, double-spaced research paper on the topic “The History of My Family.”  One of the course objectives is to teach students how to use primary and secondary sources for historical research.  In this project, students will learn how to identify, locate, and use primary and secondary sources that will help them write a research paper regarding the topic. For this project, students should demonstrate what kinds of primary and secondary sources are available regarding the topic, what possible stories regarding the history of their family they can reconstruct by using the available sources, and in what ways these topics can contribute to our understanding of the related historical periods.

In this paper, students should not only discuss the history of their family, but also should do so in the context of a meaningful historical background analysis of the time periods they chose to write about and connect to the discussion of social justice/injustice.  Chicago Manual of Style citations are required for footnotes and bibliography.  The manual is available at: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html

We have a library class scheduled on Tuesday, 9/9/2025.  A library Archivist will teach us how and where to locate data for the background research required for the project.  We should also think “out of the box,” exploring unconventional sources and ways of gathering historical sources. Students must turn in an outline and annotated bibliography for the research project on 10/31/2025.  The outline must include: topic, research question(s), thesis (i.e. main argument), and annotated bibliography.  Students must use at least four scholarly sources from the Library for the project. Students should use family artifacts as sources as well.  Please do not use Wikipedia as a source.  Online sources must be from the library databases and properly cited.  The completed research paper is due on 12/9/2025 by 3:00p.m.. Students are required to BOTH submit a hard copy of the paper to my office, AND upload an electronic copy to Blackboard by 3:00 p.m. that day for their submission to be considered on time. Each student is also required to give a 2-3 minute PowerPoint presentation on their paper in class on Friday, 12/5/2025. If you have questions regarding the project, feel free to see me.