The examiner is, of course, myself, and the object is to answer, to my own satisfaction, those questions posed above, and others along the same line covering the same subjects.
In the process of doing that, as I trawl through a labyrinthine mountain of material, I frequently encounter names, places and events with which I am totally, reasonably or slightly unfamiliar.
Despite a B.A. degree with six out of nine subjects (3) from JCU's History Department, there are significant areas that I did not study at all.
There is nothing in those subjects that deals with anything before the second half of the eighteenth century outside Southeast Asia: no Ancient History; no Renaissance and Reformation; no British or European History until the closing years of the nineteenth century.
So, what do I do there?
Again, simple.