Climbing your Brickwall - BRANDL Surname Genealogy Resources

BRANDL
Surname and Family Research Resources Site

Eight Steps to Climbing Your Genealogy Brick Wall

From an article in Millenia's LEGACY NEWS October 29, 2002
See also Millenia's LEGACY 4.0 Family Tree Software Page

Step 1:
Inventory what you know. Write it down in chronological order with dates,
places and names, etc. Often listing what you know chronologically (a "timeline")
will help you see patterns and clues you might have otherwise missed. (See also LEGACY NEWS May 7, 2002, Tips from the experts - New Chronology View and Report)

Step 2:
Make sure you really know what you think you know. Be cautious about assumptions and family traditions. Assumptions are not facts and family traditions often become distorted through time.

Step 3:
Create a research plan and set specific goals and tasks. Get specific and ask yourself, what do I need to find out, what records are most likely to have the
answers, and where are these records kept?

Step 4:
Look at maps and gazetteers. Are you looking in the right jurisdiction?
Find out what the parent county was and check its records for the time period your ancestor lived there.

Step 5:
Try searching collateral lines. Search the records for a brother or sister, or the lines of cousins, which will merge with your common ancestor.

Step 6:
Names are often misspelled or get changed. Did "Giuseppe Verde" become
"Joe Green" when he came to America? Did "Isham Fitzgerald" get recorded as "Isham F. Jerrals" in county records?

Step 7:
Were you ancestors farmers? Did they own land? Most of our ancestors own land. Land records reveal names, relationships and previous places of residence.

Step 8:
Put this project aside for now and try another line. When you return to it in a year or two, start fresh.


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