Brick Walls

Genealogists often speak of brick walls in reference to reaching a point in their research where finding any information appears to be impossible. The key work here is "appears". With enough tenacity, determination, careful research and attention to even the smallest of details along with a healthy dose of patience it is often possible to break through these brick walls. In most brick wall instances the hit with a sledgehammer approach won't work unless you happen to get extremely lucky. The more likely scenario is the small chisel approach chipping away at the mortar bit by bit to find the hidden information. Sometimes you have to get to the information in a round about way. For that very reason it is extremely important to keep meticulous genealogy research records.

I've been researching my family history and genealogy for well over 30 years but it was somewhere around 1994 that I became a very serious genealogy researcher. I took the scientific approach careful observation, careful documentation and proving through more than one source. Anyone doing genealogy research always speaks of sources. There are three basic types of sources. Primary sources are those sources in which the individual was actually present. These are the original records. These include marriage license, wills, death certificates, baptisms, census records, and etc. The key point is the person was present at the time the document was produced. Secondary sources are those sources created after the event has passed. These include obituaries, death notices, birth notices, wedding notices, and using for example a marriage certificate (primary source for marriage) as a source for the birth-date (secondary source) as the birth-date has passed some time ago. So sources can be both primary or secondary depending on their use. Tertiary sources are those sources where there has been one or more persons interacting between the event such as the International Genealogical Index (IGI) or online family trees. The goal with each and every individual in your database is to have as many primary sources as possible back-up with secondary sources. Tertiary sources should only be used as starting points not as proof.

My system of research organization sounds complicated but it isn't. I use 4" wide binders to store my paperwork which is divided into lines. At over 6,000 people in my database with supporting documentation, I have a lot of paperwork! Every piece of information is recorded in pencil on Family Group Sheets. Supporting documentation is recorded on custom made print-outs then stored with the appropriate family group starting with the parents records then followed by each child's records. The child's records are further divided as such: the parent has 13 children, so there are 13 additional family group sheets labeled 1 to 13 inside a circle. The child's information is entered in pencil if not confirmed and transferred into the computer database or pen if the previous conditions have been met. This serves as an immediate visual of what needs to be added to my computer database. When the child is married and has children the process repeats with the child, now parent's number in a circle followed by - number of child. So if I have one labeled as 2 in a circle - 1 - 2 that is the second child of the first child of the second child of the starting parents in that line. As I enter information into the computer database the pencil is overwritten in ink. The computer database contains all sourcing information, scans and images of all names, dates, notes, research notes, documents, pictures, video, sound and anything else that helps me tell my family history.