Photo taken in Dublin, Ireland – circa 2004
My genealogy search stalled once again due to employment necessity, or a lack thereof. Given the fact that I cannot quickly look something up without it turning into a few hours of family history research, I pushed it aside until I had ample time to focus on this project.
DOORS
If you’ve read some of my earlier blog posts entry, you know that I’ve encountered one locked door after another with the Smith side of my family tree. I have yet to find substantial proof of our rumored Native American lineage and the numerous marriages/remarriages of my great-grandfather and his father leave me searching for months on end.
OBITUARIES
So, you can imagine my elation when I found an “unlocked door”! Thanks to new documents available on FamilySearch, I found numerous obituaries for some of my Smith relatives in Michigan; my great-grandmother and her mother-in-law being two of the findings. I have not found my great-grandfather’s obit nor that of his father, but my search continues with renewed hope and focus that with a little determination, patience, and refocus, I’ll find those whom I seek.
Have you encountered similar struggles? If so, how did you overcome them?
Happy searching from one family detective to another!
Branches and Leaves 
I can certainly identify with making the most of available time for research. And the little miracles — the unexpected links — help make it interesting. When we grasp unexpected opportunities and analyze and connect the odd bits of information, the results are so rewarding. Keep trying those keys. There are more doors to open. 🙂
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When you finally reach that moment when the data lines up correctly, a combination of exhilaration and pride co-exist. Trying different avenues, research sites, and tree branches ultimately re-energize my focus and lead to the little miracles you mentioned. Thanks for visiting and commenting – good luck on your genealogy search!
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How exciting! Glad a door opened for you. I’ve hit plenty of walls myself. The key for me (when I’ve found key!) is to keep checking in places you have already checked. New records come online all the time. Sometimes records were transcribed wrong and have been corrected (on their ship’s manifest, my Gans family was transcribed as Gneis–no wonder I had a hard time finding them!). You just have to go back to the beginning over and over and follow threads as you find them. So it’s sort of like insanity, because you are doing the same thing over and over–but it’s not insane, because very often you will find new results!
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That’s great advice, Kerry! I’ve done that a few times with certain records only when I discovered they updated them via social media. I have to make it a point to check the UPDATED/NEW records list once a week.
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Most difficult for me over thirty years of research have been those several supposedly hopeless cases where an anceztress surname before marriage was unknown and a deadend…by returning to these knots from Differing angles a few i have u!raveled. One by returning to every known fact then imagining and checking possible alternatives…locations dates all facts seen from varied perspectives
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I’ve run into the dreaded surname-unknown scenario more times than I wish to count. Haha! Good point about going back and re-examining the “facts”. I had to realize that just because someone else has the person I’m looking for in their family tree does not necessarily mean their info is correct. I’ve had to do some backtracking there to confirm and re-confirm my data.
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