Are Your Brick Walls Really Made of Brick?

Are your brick walls really rock solid, or do you just need
fresh eyes looking things over for you?  Sometimes
when the same person examines the same problem again and again, vital clues and
information can be missed.  The following
suggestions will help you look at your research with “fresh eyes.”

1. Discuss the
problem out loud either with yourself or with someone else.  Sometimes dissecting the problem, especially
with someone who is not personally involved in the research, can help.  Questions will be asked and you will need to
explain how you have already attempted to break through a seemingly solid brick
wall, and why you took a particular approach.  Just hearing the information out loud can
often lead you to the next step.

2. Try thinking
outside the box for ideas and clues that have may have eluded you up to
this point.  Have you looked at records
beyond marriage, birth, and death certificates?  Probate and land records are often helpful.  Ask yourself; were my ancestors members of a
union or guild?  Did they participate in
an organized religion?  Were they
politically active?  What were their
interests, hobbies, or pastimes?  Looking
to these other sources may jumpstart your research and help “flesh out” your
ancestor’s life.  Don’t look specifically
for just your ancestor’s name, but also look at the local community’s archives,
newspapers, libraries, clubs, organizations, and churches.  If nothing else, it will help place your
ancestors in the proper historical and cultural context and give you an
appreciation for their everyday lives.

3. Imagine all the
variations in spellings of your surname.  Just when you thought your surname couldn’t be
spelled yet another way, lo and behold, you might happen across a record with an
alternate spelling.  Look for transposed
letters, letters that may look similar in old handwriting styles and names that
sound similar.  Also consider nicknames
of your ancestors when researching them; you never know whether they—or perhaps
a middle name—became your relatives’ preferred forms of address.  And who knows—the story behind a particular
moniker might lead you to other lost relatives.

4. Let go of what you
know—or think you know.  Family
legend may be a strong motivating force for painting a family picture but trying
to fit the puzzle pieces together based on stories passed down through
generations does not always work.  Family
lore may have Aunt Katie sailing into New York harbor from the old country—and
it’s a great story—but perhaps it was really Philadelphia where she docked and later
took another boat to arrive in New York.

5. Remember that
people often reinvented themselves.  This
was true for many immigrants who came to North and South America, and other colonies
such as Australia or some African nations, looking for a fresh start.  When you leave your past behind, something totally
different often takes its place.  The
premise of a fresh start also holds true for people who are born, live, and die
in the same country.  Perhaps your family
didn’t actually own the general store in that small town, but rather someone from
your family worked there as a clerk.  There
can be truth in the shadows, but a total reinvention may also have occurred.  For instance, one immigrant who wanted to make
an entirely fresh start in America chose a new surname at random out of the
telephone book.  Luckily for the family,
they knew about this change and embraced it as part of their heritage.

6. Look to the
professionals for assistance.  All of
those certificates, pictures, and notes you have compiled from your research, along
with other records and correspondence passed on to you by your family, can
become overwhelming without good documentation.  Genealogists.com can help you sort things out and
help you access the 90% of records collections that are available only to “boots-on-the-ground”
genealogists.  Hiring Genealogists.com
can save you both money and countless hours of frustration.  It is a rare amateur genealogist who possesses
all the skills, resources, and time needed to transform those brick walls into
passageways to the past.