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Albert Einstein once stated that If we
knew what we were doing, it would not be called
research, would it? Researching a topic can be
very rewarding for some but for others it can net
inadequate results. But, in Georgia being able to
research a topic was changed equivocally with the
creation of a virtual library. In 1995, the Univer-
sity System of Georgia (USG) launched the vision-
ary library as a way to pro-
vide equal access to informa-
tion and to improve the
quality of library services for
all Georgians. The new re-
source was named GALILEO,
or Georgia Library Online
Learning, and today it serves
more than 2,000 institutions throughout the
state. To assess the resources available through
GALILEO, I deemed it necessary to research a
topic to determine the strength of the databases
within the virtual library.

The Search Process
There are certain steps to that need to be
undertaken when researching a topic. First, and
foremost, you need to identify a topic. As I began
think of what I would like to research, I was over-
whelmed because there are so many interesting
things that I would like to learn more about! After
thinking about it for a little while, I narrowed my
choices down to three-the influence of Henry VIII
on 16th century politics, the assassination of
President John F. Kennedy, and the role of the
Mayflower Compact on the making of the Ameri-
can Constitution.
One of my favorite subjects to
learn about is British history, es-
pecially the Tudor time period
so my first though was to com-
plete an extensive search on it.
But, since I already had a pretty
comprehensive understanding
of the time period, I felt as
though it would be better to research another
topic that I was not so familiar with. Then, while
watching American Experience on PBS, I thought
that it would be interesting to thoroughly investi-
gate the assassination of President John F. Ken-
nedy. As I began to seek out information on this
topic with GALILEO, I was rewarded with quite a
few results. However, most of the articles that I
was able to locate were related to the fiftieth an-
niversary of President Kennedys death. Given
that that was not really the information relevant
If we knew what we were doing, it
would not be called research, would
it?
Albert Einstein
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With a better understanding of the May-
flower Compact, I was able to proceed to
the next step in the research process-
finding books, periodical articles, re-
cordings, videos, and other resources that
enable me to explain to others the impact
that the Mayflower Compact had on the
creation of the Constitution of the United
States of America. For this step, I went
back to GALILEO, typed in Mayflower Com-
pact in the search, and clicked the search
button. Within a few seconds, I was taken
to a page with my results-all
5,535. As I began to sort through
my results, I realized that I
needed to be more specific with
what I was searching for because
I was only able to find a few arti-
cles that were from academic
journals. So, I refined my search
results to only include academic
journals which lessened my re-
sults to only 1,395 hits with arti-
cles presented to me that were
more in line with what I was
searching for. After this, I went
to the list of History Databases
held within GALILEO to deter-
mine if I would be able to locate
anymore articles to complete
my research needs. My first
stop within the was Academic
Search Complete where I was
able to explore and discover a few re-
sources. I then went to the Research Li-
brary at Pro-Quest were I was pleasantly
surprised to find many academic journal
articles that fit my research needs. After
making use of these two general databases,
I focused my attention on historical data-
bases. I first went to the History Reference
Center which enabled me to find 13 viable
references. I then went to the Digital Pub-
lic Library of America where I was not able
to my topic, I decided that I would divert
my efforts into a different topic.
About this time, I had been speaking
to my father about our family history. He
had been researching an ancestor that lived
in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the
middle of the 17th century. But, our con-
versation turned to a different direction
when we began discussing other ancestors
who had lived in the colony. One of those
ancestors was William Brewster, a Separa-
tist pastor, passenger on the Mayflower
(along with his wife and two
sons), and a signer of the May-
flower Compact. Since this was
an area of history that I was not
as familiar with as Reformation
era England, and one that would
be interesting to research be-
cause of my family connection, I
considered the Mayflower Com-
pact to be a topic worth delving
into for research purposes.
The next step in the re-
search process after deciding
upon a topic is to locate back-
ground information on our topic.
As a child, I was taught about the
Mayflower and the Pilgrims. But,
to understand the Compact, I
needed to find out more. I began
by locating primary sources from
this time in history. I was able to
discover a copy of William Bradfords jour-
nal that detailed the voyage of the May-
flower from London to the New World as
well as events that took place in the colony
from 1620-1642. In addition, I located a
copy of the Mayflower Compact. While
these sources are invaluable, I still wanted
to have a condensed article that explained
the Compact. I went to the Encyclopedia
Britannica and was able to have my need
satisfied.
William Brewster served as
the religious leader in the Ply-
mouth Colony as well as an
advisor to Governor William
Bradford in addition to being
my 16th great grandfather.
1. The Social Compact in American
History from Generations
2. The Historical Origins of the Rule of
Law in the American Constitutional
Order from the Harvard Journal Of
Law & Public Policy
3. Plimouth Plantation from Ameri-
can History Illustrated
4. American Aspirations and The
Grounds of Hope from the Review
Of Politics
5. The Mayflower Compact from the
Proceedings Of The American Anti-
quarian Society
6. Religion and the Constitution from
Humanist
7. Puritanism and Its Impact upon
American Values from the Review
Of European Studies
8. The Pilgrims Before Plymouth
from The World & I
9. Why They Mattered: The Return of
Politics to Puritan New England
from Modern Intellectual History
10. Keepers of the New Covenant: The
Puritan Legacy in American Consti-
tutional Law from the Journal Of
Catholic Legal Studies
11. Mayflower Compact and Family
Compact from Beaver
12. The Conservative Covenant: The
Rise of the Mayflower Compact in
American Myth from the New Eng-
land Quarterly

find any new aca-
demic journal arti-
cles but I was able
to locate many
print books avail-
able for my use
that pertained to
my topic. The
most interesting
thing to me about
this database was
the fact that a
scanned copy of original books are posted
for anyone to use, including those that per-
tained to my search.
At this point, I went back to the list-
ing of historical databases available from
GALILEO and began to determine if there
were another others that would have the
information that I was searching for. I
found five more-America: History and Life,
World History Collection, Early English
Books Online, Early American Prints, and
Humanities International Index. As I began
to investigate these other databases, I no-
ticed that I was not having much luck in lo-
cating articles that I had not previously lo-
cated. In fact, I was not able to locate any
resources with Early English Books Online
or Early American Prints.
Once I had obtained around 20 arti-
cles, I felt as though I was prepared to com-
plete the next step in the research process-
evaluating the authority, usefulness, and
reliability of the information that I had lo-
cated. To do this, I had to determine
whether or not the articles that I had col-
lected were actually academic journal arti-
cles by a set of criteria. The criteria in-
cluded the format of the article as well as
the intended audience and the appearance
of the article. As I began the weeding proc-
ess, I became aware that fifteen out of the
twenty met the criteria I had established
and the fifteen articles were:





















































A facsimile copy of the
Mayflower Compact
The Pilgrim
s landing on Plym
outh
Rock.
13. Mayflower: A story of Courage,
Community, and War from the His-
torical Journal of Massachusetts
14. What was the Mayflower Com-
pact? from Sea History
15. Pilgrims' Progress from the Smith-
sonian

The last step in the research process
is to cite each resource that has been lo-
cated. There are several ways to do this.
The first is to use a print copy of a particular
citation style guide like the MLA Style
Guide, Chicago Manual of Style, or the APA
Citation Style Guide. The second way to
cite the sources used in the research proc-
ess is to use a software program to gener-
ate the citation. There are several to use
and the most popular are EasyBib, Citation
Machine, and NoodleTools. The third way
is to use the citation tool within the data-
base you are using. Whichever way you
choose, citing resources is one of the most
important actions to make in the research
process because credit must be given to the
correct person. I was able to cite each re-
source that I discover and here is a glimpse
of the complete list of journal articles:

Achenbaum, W. (1998). The Social Compact
In American History. Generations, 22(4),
15.

Bowman, G. (1920). The Mayflower Com
pact and its Signers. Retrieved from
http://ia700202.us.archive.org/6/items/
mayflowercompact00bow/
mayflowercompact00bow.pdf

Bradford, W. (2009). Of Plymouth Planta
tion. Of Plymouth Plantation, 1.

Bradford, W. (2009). The Voyage of the
Mayflower. Voyage Of The Mayflower,
92.
Calabresi, S. G. (2004). The Historical Ori
gins of the Rule of Law in the American
Constitutional Order. Harvard Journal Of
Law & Public Policy, 28(1), 273-280.

Cullen, J. P. (1973). Plimouth Plantation.
American History Illustrated, 8(1), 26-37.

Hesburgh, T. M. (1976). American Aspira
tions and The Grounds of Hope. Review
Of Politics, 38(3), 423.

Lord, A. (1920). The Mayflower Compact.
Proceedings Of The American Antiquar
ian Society, 30(2), 278-294.

Lutz, D. S. (1988). The origins of American
Constitutionalism / Donald S. Lutz. Baton
Rouge : Louisiana State University Press,
c1988.

Mansfield, B. (McManus) "Mrs. M. F. Mans
field.". (1897). The Voyage of the May
flower. New York: E.R. Herrick & co.

Mason Crest, P. (2004). The Plymouth Col
ony. Northern Colonies: The Quest For
Religious Freedom (1600-1700), 22-35.

Mayflower Compact. (2009). Mayflower
Compact, 1.

Mayflower Compact. (2013). In Encyclopae
dia Britannica. Retrieved from http://
www.britannica.com/EBchecked/
topic/370977/Mayflower-Compact

McKown, D. B. (1988). Religion and the
Constitution. Humanist, 48(3), 13-46.

Ning, K. (2009). Puritanism and Its Impact
upon American Values. Review Of Euro
pean Studies, 1(2), 148-151.

Olsen, E. P. (2003). The Pilgrims before Ply
mouth. The World & I, 18(11), 114-123.
Retrieved from http://
search.proquest.com/
docview/235838692?accountid=15017

Peterson, M. (2013). Why They Mattered:
The Return of Politics to Puritan New
England. Modern Intellectual History, 10
(3), 683. doi:10.1017/
S1479244313000267

Piar, D. F. (2010). KEEPERS OF THE NEW
COVENANT: THE PURITAN LEGACY IN
AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. Jour
nal Of Catholic Legal Studies, 49143.

Raible, C. (1996). Mayflower compact &
Family compact. Beaver, 76(1), 22.

Rudd, A. G. (1951). The Birth of American
ism. Vital Speeches Of The Day, 17(7),
223.

Sargent, M. L. (1988). The Conservative
Covenant: The Rise of the Mayflower
Compact in American Myth. New Eng
land Quarterly, 61(2), 233-251.

Symington, T. (2007). Mayflower: A story of
courage, community, and war. Historical
Journal of Massachusetts, 35(1), 97-99.
Retrieved from http://
search.proquest.com/
docview/233366466?accountid=15017

Tichenor, D. J., & Harris, R. A. (2010). A His
tory of the U.S. Political System : Ideas,
Interests, and Institutions. Santa Bar
bara, Calif: ABC-CLIO.

What was the Mayflower Compact?.
(2010). Sea History, (133), 38-39.

Worrall, S. (2006). Pilgrims' Progress. Smith-
sonian, 37(8), 88-97.

Conclusion
The process of writing a research paper can
be daunting for anyone. For some, the
process is time consuming and because of
that reeks havoc in their life. While for oth-
ers, locating articles that are relevant to a
topic may seem too difficult as well as citing
those articles. However, writing a research
paper does have positive aspects as well. In
researching a particular topic, you are able
to gain knowledge and understand it in a
new light. Within the steps that I took in
learning more about the Mayflower Com-
pact and its impact on the Constitution of
the United States, I was able to exercise re-
searching skills that I had not used in some
time. Thankfully, even though I was a little
rusty, I was still able to delve into the topic
and find enough information to be able to
write a research paper. For anyone else
who is in the throws of researching and
writing a research paper, I would offer the
following advice. Remember to:

1. Be creative! You need to be creative in
your thinking and process development
to build upon your knowledge of a sub-
ject.
2. Use your judgment wisely! Make sure
that you evaluate the resources that
you use effectively but also make sure
to ask for help when you encounter an
obstacle.
3. Communicate effectively! If you need
help, ensure that
you are informing
your teacher or
professor that you
do. Also, make cer-
tain that you suc-





















































cessfully use your writing skills to make
your point.
4. Be organized! Keeping well organized
notes will enable to you create a well
thought out paper because you will be
able to locate information easily.
5. Be persistent! Remember not to give
up even if it seems as though you are at
a dead end. In research, there is always
a new resource that will help you in
your endeavors.

Bibliography
(Images)

Ferris, J. (2010, August 3). The Mayflower Com-
pact [Illustration]. Retrieved from http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
File:The_Mayflower_Compact_1620_cph.3g071
55.jpg
Haywood, M. (n.d.). The Pilgrim Fathers' first
landing 13 Nov 1620 [Image]. Retrieved from
http://www.mayflowersteps.co.uk/
mayflower_index.html
Holbein, H. (2013, April 21). Portrait of Henry
VIII [Image]. Retrieved from http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
File:Workshop_of_Hans_Holbein_the_Younger
_-_Portrait_of_Henry_VIII_-
_Google_Art_Project.jpg
Imaginary likeness of William Brewster [Image].
(2009, March 25). Retrieved from http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
File:William_Brewster_cropped.png
King Henry VII, by unknown artist [Image].
(2009, April 1). Retrieved from http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
File:King_Henry_VII_from_NPG.jpg
Mayflower Compact [Image]. (2008, August 19).
Retrieved from http://www.ncmayflower.org/
mayflowercompact.htm

Nov.22 Front Page [Photograph]. (2013, No-
vember 22). Retrieved from http://
www.dispatch.com/content/stories/
local/2013/10/30/jfk-newspapers.html
Bibliography
For
Research Process

Achenbaum, W. (1998). The Social Compact in
American History. Generations, 22(4), 15.

Bowman, G. (1920). The Mayflower Compact
and its signers. Retrieved from http://
ia700202.us.archive.org/6/items/
mayflowercompact00bow/
mayflowercompact00bow.pdf

Bradford, W. (2009). Of Plymouth Plantation. Of
Plymouth Plantation, 1.

Bradford, W. (2009). The voyage of the May-
flower. Voyage Of The Mayflower, 92.

Calabresi, S. G. (2004). THE HISTORICAL ORI-
GINS OF THE RULE OF LAW IN THE AMERICAN
CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER. Harvard Journal Of
Law & Public Policy, 28(1), 273-280.

Cullen, J. P. (1973). PLIMOUTH PLANTATION.
American History Illustrated, 8(1), 26-37.

Hesburgh, T. M. (1976). American Aspirations
and The Grounds of Hope. Review Of Politics,
38(3), 423.

Lord, A. (1920). THE MAYFLOWER COMPACT.
Proceedings Of The American Antiquarian Soci-
ety, 30(2), 278-294.

Lutz, D. S. (1988). The origins of American con-
stitutionalism / Donald S. Lutz. Baton Rouge :
Louisiana State University Press, c1988.

Mansfield, B. (McManus) "Mrs. M. F.
Mansfield.". (1897). The voyage of the
Mayflower. New York: E.R. Herrick & co.

Mason Crest, P. (2004). THE PLYMOUTH COL-
ONY. Northern Colonies: The Quest For Reli-
gious Freedom (1600-1700), 22-35.

Mayflower Compact. (2009). Mayflower Com-
pact, 1.

Mayflower Compact. (2013). In Encyclopedia
Britannica. Retrieved from http://
www.britannica.com/EBchecked/
topic/370977/Mayflower-Compact

McKown, D. B. (1988). Religion and the Consti-
tution. Humanist, 48(3), 13-46.

Ning, K. (2009). Puritanism and Its Impact
upon American Values. Review Of European
Studies, 1(2), 148-151.

Olsen, E. P. (2003). The pilgrims before ply-
mouth. The World & I, 18(11), 114-123. Re-
trieved from http://search.proquest.com/
docview/235838692?accountid=15017

PETERSON, M. (2013). WHY THEY MATTERED:
THE RETURN OF POLITICS TO PURITAN NEW
ENGLAND. Modern Intellectual History, 10(3),
683. doi:10.1017/S1479244313000267

Piar, D. F. (2010). KEEPERS OF THE NEW COVE-
NANT: THE PURITAN LEGACY IN AMERICAN
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. Journal Of Catholic
Legal Studies, 49143.

Raible, C. (1996). Mayflower compact & family
compact. Beaver, 76(1), 22.
Rudd, A. G. (1951). The Birth of Americanism.
Vital Speeches Of The Day, 17(7), 223.

Sargent, M. L. (1988). The Conservative Cove-
nant: The Rise of the Mayflower Compact in
American Myth. New England Quarterly, 61(2),
233-251.

Symington, T. (2007). Mayflower: A story of
courage, community, and war. Historical Journal
of Massachusetts, 35(1), 97-99. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/
docview/233366466?accountid=15017

Tichenor, D. J., & Harris, R. A. (2010). A History of
the U.S. Political System : Ideas, Interests, and
Institutions. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO.

What was the Mayflower Compact?. (2010). Sea
History, (133), 38-39.

Worrall, S. (2006). Pilgrims' Progress. Smith-
sonian, 37(8), 88-97.