A good history detective never leaves home without their tools of the trade. You never know when you might need to record clues to further your investigation.

Roll over the tools in the briefcase to find out more.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a camera is a priceless tool for recording discoveries and evidence during an investigation.

Use it to take pictures of a location, the object you are investigating and even records like a gravestone or street marker. Remember to always label your photographs with the time, date and location.

Never leave home without a notebook! You will need to take notes during interviews, record your observations and note important facts discovered along the way.

Note taking is especially important in libraries where you should record the source for any information you dig up.

Often a history detective will need to take a closer look at an object to examine markings or features that will help determine how old it is.

The more you observe, the more you can compare it to similar items. Always check for a maker's stamp or other markings that may indicate who the owner might have been.

There's nothing worse than being caught in the field without a method of recording the progress of your investigation. Always carry a couple of pens or pencils so you can take notes. If you're recording the details from a gravestone, you can make a rubbing my holding your paper over the engraved stone and lightly rubbing your pencil over it. The raised letters on the gravestone will show up on the paper, and you will have an accurate record of the name and date of the deceased.

A big part of being a history detective is appraising artifacts. That means looking at something that's old and trying to figure out where it came from and if it has historical importance. You can compare your artifact to an original by checking measurements.