Research Certification is a very easy certification to obtain, really. The whole point behind research is to pull up any previous owners of the land. Finding what the land looked like a hundred years ago, or so goes a long way in determining what may be occurring at the location. Also, finding any newspaper articles of the occurrences that happened at, or around that specific area can be helpful in putting names, or events at that location. Even if the event happened 100, or so years ago.

In order to obtain this certification, each member has to go along on a "Research Expedition" meaning that each member has to be accompanied by a certified member of the group to different places to obtain the above information. If you're not with a certified member, how are you going to know how we do things inside of the group? Outside research is not frowned upon. As a matter of fact, we applaud any member who would go the extra distance to find out any information on the land that we're going to be investigating. Unfortunately most of the research we do is not kept on records that can be obtained over the internet.

Any/all research is completed prior to the actual investigation. The reason for this, is that there may be information we find that will be beneficial while we're doing the investigation. Whether it be a first name, last name, a couple who used to live there, buildings that used to be in the area prior to the homeowners/business owners arrival, and events that happened.

Research may take several days, and/or locations before the group is "happy" with the amount of information we've obtained. Therefore, research is not completed until the lead investigator is happy with all of the information.