The last of 31 genealogy tips? Boost your genealogy research with a fresh eye by going back to the beginning! See what a fresh look can do. #genealogy #ancestry #areyoumycousin #familyhistory
Genealogy Research,  How To Trace Your Family Tree

31 Days of “Out of the Box” Genealogy Tips – Go Back!

July 2018 is completely focused on providing you with genealogy tips that are …..well,….”out of the box”.

Welcome to DAY 31 of the 31 Days of “Out of the Box” Genealogy Tips series! Need to start at the beginning of the series or catch up? Start here.

DAY 31 (The Last of Our Genealogy Tips!) – Go Back To The Beginning

Today’s the last day in our 31 Days of “Out of the Box” Genealogy Tips. We did it! You now have 31 new tips and strategies in your genealogy toolbox.

Our last tip?  Go back to the beginning.

As genealogy researchers, we pour ourselves into the research of our ancestors. Research projects can take months and years to complete. We collect multiple records over time – some related to our research and well, some we hope will be needed at a later date.

Our research can get stalled sometimes. We come up against brick walls in our research. We just get plain stuck. (Sometimes there is no other way to put it.)

That’s when the time has come to go back to the beginning of your research.

Put away what you know about your research.  Put aside what you think you know. Put away any pre-conceived notions about your ancestors.

Just start back at the beginning.  Pull out the records you have collected over the months or years, and just start reading.  You will start to notice things you missed early in your research.  You’ll find some things now make sense, because of subsequent research. You will start to recognize your ancestor among other men of the same or similar name. You will have new ideas for future research into your ancestor.

The last of 31 genealogy tips? Boost your genealogy research with a fresh eye by going back to the beginning! See what a fresh look can do.

One of my long standing brick walls is William Harward (sometimes Howard) of Wake and Orange Counties, North Carolina. He has a common name for the area and in multiple generations of the his family. This summer I went back to the beginning on William.  I pulled out all of the records (hard copy and digital), notes, and previously made timelines.

I just read and discovered….

I had the answer to one of the biggest questions about William right in front of me. I did not need more records – I just needed to interpret those early records in light of subsequent research.

Are you working on a research project that has taken months and years?  Go back to the beginning!

Now It’s Your Turn!

Go back to the beginning of a long standing or stalled genealogy research project and start over.

Check out previous posts in the 31 Days of Out of the Box Genealogy Tips:

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The last of 31 genealogy tips? Boost your genealogy research with a fresh eye by going back to the beginning! See what a fresh look can do. #genealogy #ancestry #areyoumycousin #familyhistory

 

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4 Comments

  • Solveig Quass

    Great article! I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve went back and discovered I already had the information I was looking for and didn’t know it. Still, when I’m stumped, I just don’t think about going over what I have. Just this week I remembered I had pictures and notes from the family cemetery and when I checked, half the people hadn’t been entered last time because I was only interested in the direct line.

  • Mark A Hochstetler

    Just a couple of items to check on your web page. Cookbooks link yields a 404 Page not found error and Day 15 (1812) leads to Day 14 content. Love the content! Learned lots–thanks for all the work!

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