Chat with people at your table. Explain your topic and brainstorm for possible search terms.
If you're stuck, use the Oxford English Dictionary to see if the terms are appropriate to your time period.
This link opens in a new windowContinue talking with your table.
What types of sources are you most likely to find/need for your topic? Letters, government documents, published materials?
Based on the type of materials you'll need, look at the primary source database list and consider which database is most likely to have the materials you need.
The William & Mary Libraries spend Millions of dollars on databases and e-resources. This is great, but also makes it easy to get overwhelmed and not know where to start. Our history databases are organized to help you find primary sources based on theme or document type (see below). For this class in particular, I will also be highlighting major databases of interest.