More Research

I'm headed to Salt Lake City for a few more hours of research before I start my paper. Time is running out and I feel more lost now then I did before I started. This Friday I will head out, without my family, and spend three to four hours in the LDS History Library. I will then get up and spend another five hours there the next day. All this work for a few items that will lead me in a direction to build a thesis. My professors tell me that the artifacts, the primary sources, need to speak to me. I am hoping that during this trip the primary sources will scream at me. The interpretation of these sources is the hard part of research and I am finding it a tough task. What does one source say about another and how does it fit in the broader historical context? How does one historian interpret a source one way but another is able to get something completely different? I am about to spend eight to nine hours trying to figure that out. It is perplexing and yet I am having the time of my life digging through old letters, photos, and notes. Let's hope that this weekend produces the results that I am looking for.