Where do Historians get their information about the past?

Answer 1

Good historians go back to the original documents - they look at letters and record books, they read newspapers of the period and government archives. If it's quite recent history, they can interview participants and see photographs, films etc

Take the records of the Holocaust. The Germans kept it as quiet as they could, they transferred information face to face as often as they could and they destroyed a lot of documents once they realised they were losing.

BUT they couldn't destroy everything and huge amounts of information have been gathered from railway timetables, bills sent to manufacturers of crematoria and poison gas, architectural drawings, census information from before the war, information people sent back to report/boast how well they were doing at killing, photographs, air reconnaissance, witness reports, graves, mass burial sites, local government records, troop movements, survivors statements, liberators reports, information smuggled out of the camps by resisters, tax records, bills for slave labour, recovered property, hair, clothing, spectacles.

Answer 2

Historians search through documents of all sorts. Usually the Primary sources or "First hand accounts" are the best: diaries, legal documents, newspaper accounts, reports, interviews & other histories. Primary sources are the best.

This is done by visiting libraries of all kinds, archives, museums and the like. Now, historians can visit many of these places on line instead of going in person. On line resources also help with research.

It's a bit tedious, but finding the "right" stuff to back up the thesis or ideas is great! It makes all the searching worthwhile.

Answer 3

from previous historians who got it from previous historians who got it from.......you get the picture.
We, the human race, has never stopped learning things about our past. As technology has developed so has our ability to discover historic things that were previously unknown. I don't imagine this will ever stop.

Answer 4

From whatever artifacts or remnants of the past that are available. Sometimes information comes from legends and tales that have been passed down through oral tradition. Other times it is found in old writings.
And most times it is through pure detective work.

Answer 5

Think about it this way.

You're born - birth certificate.
Go to school? - graduation certificate / school records.
Car accident? - police report.
Get married? - marriage certificate.
Purchase *anything* - receipts.
When you die, death certificate / obituary (listing next of kin).

Historians glean these old records - here's just a few:
Population census, newspaper articles, military service records, phone books, obits, old stories (oral histories), birth / death certificates, surviving letters and diaries or journals.

Just remember, as you go through life, you leave a paper trail.

Answer 6

Any credit examine or tax information must have an handle historic previous on it. you do not have any way of looking who his landlord changed into although or a thanks to achieve them. Any skill landlord will choose that for the period of addition, not in basic terms the addresses.

Answer 7

Primary sources.

Answer 8

They use archeological digs, old manuscripts, old papers and books in libraries and museums. And they interview other researchers.

Answer 9

it's called research.

Answer 10

they keep digging