Trade Secrets

You were happily researching your ancestors, finding them in one record after another. Then just like that, you hit a dead end. You can’t locate anything on that family anymore—it’s as if your forebears disappeared from the face of the earth. You’re stumped, frustrated and unsure where to turn next.

The good news is you’re not alone. You’ve hit what genealogists have come to know as a brick-wall problem, and sooner or later it happens to everybody.

You may be having difficulty finding out whom an ancestor’s parents were, when and where someone was born or died, what a woman’s maiden name was or where an ancestor came from. Part of the problem might be that the records you need no longer exist—they’ve been lost due to theft, misplacement or disasters such as fires or floods—or they were never created in the first place.

Brick walls happen once you’ve searched all the typical existing records for an ancestor or family: censuses, vital records, deeds and so on. I’ve had many beginners come to me for advice, saying they’ve hit a brick wall. My first question is always “Have you searched for this ancestor in all possible censuses?” Almost every time, the answer is no—to which I respond, “Then you can’t be at a brick wall.” Make sure you’ve looked for your ancestors in all the basic genealogical sources before you start tearing your hair out.

But when you do hit a brick wall and you’ve really done all the basics, what next? Professional genealogists, who must bulldoze through brick walls for a living, have learned ways around these seemingly unsolvable problems—secrets you can apply to your own ancestral dead ends. Here are a dozen strategies the pros use to turn roadblocks into research breakthroughs.

1. Keep a positive attitude.

“A brick-wall problem for me is a temporary delay,” says Paula Stuart-Warren, a certified genealogical records specialist and co-author of Your Guide to the Family History Library (Betterway Books). True, it’s frustrating and discouraging to come up empty-handed after going through reels of microfilm and pages of courthouse books, but keeping a positive outlook is important. “Few researchers can solve every brick-wall problem,” says Marsha Hoffman Rising, a certified genealogist and fellow of the American Society of Genealogists (ASG). “But that doesn’t mean I give up.” In genealogy, patience and perseverance definitely pay off.

2. Broaden your search.

Certified genealogist Suzanne McVetty was looking for the death date of Fanny Galuten, who supposedly died in Manhattan when she was about 16 years old, but no one knew when Galuten was born. Making a chronology of the family (see strategy 4), McVetty found a gap in the birth of the family’s children between 1886 and 1891—where she thought Galuten would fit. Next, she searched the death indexes for the years 1902 to 1907, when a 16-year-old Galuten presumably would’ve died. When she didn’t find anyone by that name, she broadened her search to include spelling variations such as Geluten, Goluten, Guluten and Jaulten. Still no luck. Next, McVetty tried broadening the geographic area of her search. Instead of looking only in Manhattan, she searched the indexes for New York City’s other four boroughs: Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island. Still unsuccessful, she started tracing Galuten’s siblings (see strategy 3). When she obtained the 1910 census for Galuten’s brother, McVetty found Fanny Galuten living in that household. Based on her age in that census, McVetty now had an estimated birth year of 1900, much later than her original guess. So she went back to the death indexes for Manhattan and the Bronx, since those were the most logical places for this family, and searched all spelling variations between 1910 and 1925. Finally, she learned that Fanny Galuten had died in the Bronx in 1914, at the age of 15.

3. Move on to other relatives and neighbors.

Emily Anne Croom, author of The Sleuth Book for Genealogists (Betterway Books), calls this approach “cluster genealogy.” You “study the cluster of relatives (especially children and siblings), friends, neighbors and others with whom your ancestor associated.” If you’re not finding any records on your ancestor, perhaps other relatives or neighbors generated documents that refer to him or will provide clues for new avenues to pursue. Make a list of everyone named in the records of your ancestor, such as witnesses and joint property owners. “Often, I notice individuals who are appearing frequently in the same records as the problem ancestor,” says Rising. “I can then investigate these individuals to see if their records reveal an answer to the problem.”

For a while, Rising was trying to identify the origins of a William Henry who in October 1838 purchased land in St. Clair County, Mo., from the federal land office in Springfield, Mo. Henry wasn’t on the 1840 or 1850 census there, and Rising couldn’t find a deed for the 159 acres he acquired. He didn’t appear in any of the circuit court records. Marriage records for that period haven’t survived. Rising couldn’t locate a probate record, either. If Henry had died in the county, she probably would’ve found records from the sale of his land or an appearance of his presumed heirs. It was more likely that he’d moved away. But why had he gone there in the first place? In the short time he was there, with whom did he associate?

Henry did create records with three men: Ebenezer Gash, who acquired land the same day in an adjoining section, and brothers Pleasant and Henry W. Crow, to whom Henry had assigned his 159 acres. This information came from the federal land records, rather than those at the county level. Gash was listed in the census as a head of household in Marion County, Mo., in 1830; further investigation into his large family showed that he lived near Henry — who’d returned to Marion County by 1840 and died there in 1848. Additional research in Marion County led to Henry’s origin in Buncombe County, NC, which happens to be the birthplace of Gash, as well.

I came to a similar dead end in researching the Irish origins of Delia (Gordon) Norris, who immigrated to America about 1885 and settled in Greenwich, Conn. None of the records I found for her, her husband or her children gave me any clues to her Irish origins, so I turned to Delia’s only known relative in America, her twin sister, Mary.

When I began searching for Mary, I knew only the date and place she’d died and the name of her husband, James Clark. But that was enough to get started. Applying the cluster approach, I looked for any and all records that pertained to Mary, hoping that a document might lead me to her—and her sister Delia’s—origins. I found a ton of records on Mary, her husband and a son. None of the records revealed their home in Ireland, but a newspaper account of Mary’s death did give me another clue: Delia and Mary had another sister, Annie, who came to America and married Richard E. Hanly. I decided to shift my research focus to the Hanlys.

Doing so helped me bust right through that brick wall. When Hanly became a naturalized citizen in 1917, he reported that his wife, Annie, was born in County Leitrim, Ireland. The birth certificate of their first child also lists County Leitrim as Annie’s birthplace. That gave me enough information about the three sisters to write to the heritage center in County Leitrim and request a search of its record holdings. The search provided me with the family’s townland: Ardvarney.

4. Make a chronology.

Charting what you know about your quarry through the years can help solve your research puzzles. Start with the earliest date you have for an ancestor, such as a birth date or year of immigration, and make a chronological list of everything you know about that person and the immediate family. Include information you’ve documented from other sources, plus any speculations. But make sure it’s clear which information is speculative by placing a question mark after the data.

Kathleen W. Hinckley, a certified genealogical records specialist and author of Your Guide to the Federal Census (Betterway Books), says that her “most successful strategy is to prepare a detailed chronological and geographical study of the individual or family. This strategy requires you to reorganize past research and review all previous documentation with fresh eyes, which in itself often produces new ideas. When there is a gap in time without information, you focus on that time period. If it’s unknown when a family migrated from one area to another, you focus on that portion of the project.”

5. Analyze what you’ve gathered, questioning everything.

“I look at all I know and see if it can be confirmed,” says McVetty. “When I’m at a brick wall, I begin by assuming the information I have is correct, but something got recorded wrong, such as the spelling of a name, a wrong date or place.” If that strategy doesn’t work, then “I assume that there is something wrong with the information I have. Was she born when I thought she was? Is her name really Fanny Galuten? Why do I think she died in Manhattan? Then go from there.” In other words, question everything. Don’t assume that what you find in records—even legal documents—is correct. McVetty recommends using the “what if” approach: “Look at all the facts, then say, ‘What if she didn’t die in Manhattan? Where would the next logical place be?’”

6. Look for alternative sources.

If you’re new to genealogy, you might not realize all the different types of records out there for you to research. Don’t get stuck in a genealogical rut, thinking all that’s available is what’s on the Internet or in the usual sources: vital records, censuses, deeds, wills, passenger lists and the like. If you’re researching in the South, chances are good that you’ll hit a “burned county” sooner or later—that is, the courthouse burned and some, if not all, the records went up in smoke. Consider alternative sources such as city directories, tax records, property assessments, estate inventories and settlements, criminal cases, court minutes—the list is endless. Not every type of record exists for every time period or place, of course. But as Patricia Law Hatcher, a certified genealogist and fellow of the ASG, suggests, you need to “sit yourself down in the place where you know your ancestor and family lived and don’t leave until you’ve looked at every word of every record that is connected to the extended family (not just the ancestor), neighbors and associates.”

7. Follow every lead.

Rising believes that “success in overcoming a brick-wall problem comes from assembling as many records as possible and examining each of them carefully for subtle clues. (Obvious ones you’ve presumably already investigated.) Assemble the subtle clues, looking for patterns, repetitions of people and events, and gather the records from those clues.”

For example, professional genealogist Marcia Wyett was looking for the parents of Clara Crowther. All the records she’d gathered said Crowther was born in Kansas, yet Wyett couldn’t find Crowther’s parents in the 1900 federal census Soundex (a census index that groups together similar-sounding names; learn more at <www.familytreemagazine.com/soundex.html>) for Kansas. Crowther was married in Arkansas, and her children were born there, so Wyett next checked the 1900 Soundex for Arkansas. No luck. Wyett then located Crowther in the 1920 federal census, which said her children were born in Oklahoma, not Arkansas. Nothing in any of the other records Wyett had gathered—censuses, vital records, railroad retirement files—indicated that Crowther had ever lived in Oklahoma. Was this a census taker’s error or a new lead? Assuming it was a lead, Wyett checked the 1900 Soundex for Oklahoma. Sure enough, Crowther was there, living with her mother. It turns out her father had died by 1900.

8. Show the problem to another genealogist.

Having someone with a fresh outlook study the problem may help break through your brick wall. Another genealogist may hone in on a detail you’ve overlooked. This is an important reason to attend and network at local genealogical society events. Even professionals do this kind of networking: When they’re stumped, they’ll turn to a colleague or friend for advice. The old adage “two heads are better than one” certainly applies to family tree research.

You might want to consider hiring a professional genealogist for a consultation on your research problem. If so, you’ll need to have all of your research organized and well-documented for the most economical use of your money and the professional’s time. Depending on the extent of the research you’ve already done, it may take a professional only a few hours to review the information and provide you with suggestions to further your research.

9. Study the social history.

Another strategy for breaking through a brick wall is to study social histories of your problem ancestor’s ethnic group, time period and place. Social histories, such as Alice Morse Earle’s Home Life in Colonial Days (Berkshire House Publishers) and Steven Mintz and Susan Kellogg’s Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life (Free Press), give accounts of everyday people and their everyday lives. These types of books won’t list your ancestors by name, but they will offer insight into the lifestyles and behavioral motivations of people like your ancestors—background knowledge that may affect your research direction. For more on applying social history to your genealogy, see Katherine Scott Sturdevant’s Bringing Your Family History to Life through Social History (Betterway Books, out of print).

I learned from social histories on Italian-Americans that it was common for the man to immigrate first and bring his family to America five or 10 years later. Many men had no intention of staying in America; their goal was to earn enough money to go back to Italy and buy land. Dubbed “birds of passage,” they had a high return-migration rate; in other words, they went back and forth between Italy and America.

Once I found my relative Albino DeBartolo on a passenger arrival list for 1905—even though his family didn’t arrive until 1913—I went back to the passenger arrival lists’ index to see if he fit the pattern of a returnee. Sure enough, he did. He made two more trips back and forth to Italy between 1905 and 1913. Had I not broadened my research to social histories and learned the typical migration pattern for this ethnic group, I might have missed these additional records on him.

10. Read case studies.

By studying how others have overcome their research obstacles, you can apply similar techniques or sources to your own research. “Everyone should subscribe to a variety of printed and online genealogical publications, and, in addition, read whatever back issues you can,” advises Stuart-Warren. “A local genealogical society may exchange publications with others from across the country. I’ve found much insight in old issues of genealogical and historical publications that aren’t even from one of my ancestral areas.”

Read genealogical journals such as the National Genealogical Society Quarterly and The American Genealogist or guidebooks with case studies, such as Croom’s Sleuth Book. A case study could relate to your research if the family in the article is from the same geographical area or of the same ethnic background. From the footnotes or endnotes, you may learn about new record groups and sources—or those you simply hadn’t considered before. Even reading the book reviews can help: I discovered The Five Thomas Harrises of Isle of Wight County, Virginia compiled by John Anderson Brayton (self-published, out of print) while reading book reviews. This book was highly recommended by the reviewer and deals with a topic that every researcher encounters sooner or later: sorting out different men with the same name who are about the same age and living in the same community. Reading a book like this—even if it doesn’t deal with your family—will give you ideas and methods for tackling similar problems.

11. Ignore the problem, and it will go away.

One of the best strategies I’ve found for overcoming brick walls is to ignore the problem, in which case it will probably go away. Put your research on that family or ancestor on hold for at least six months to a year. Don’t think about it. In the meantime, work on other family lines. It’s amazing what you’ll see with fresh eyes when you pull out the information after a long break. You’ll mentally slap your forehead and say, “Why didn’t I notice that before?” You’ll find clues and sometimes outright answers staring you in the face—facts you were blind to while in the heat of the search. Sometimes, it really helps to step away from the problem in order to see it clearly; then go back and try, or retry, the brick-wall strategies.

Plus, your knowledge will have grown in that six to 12 months of abstinence. If you’ve been working on other family lines in the interim—which, of course, you should—your experience from that research may help you with your brick-wall case. You also should be reading constantly and attending genealogical society meetings, seminars, classes and conferences to expand your knowledge.

12. Find the end of the road.

It’s a genealogical fact of life that you might never get your hands on a record that directly answers a brick-wall question. “Instead, you may need to piece together the best possible answer from the evidence you find in your research,” explains Croom. “Gather enough evidence to make a convincing argument and explain any conflicting evidence.”

Granted, some of your research brick walls may never come crumbling down. But you won’t know until you’ve tried different strategies—or a combination of strategies—for breaking through them. I often encounter people who’ve spent 20 years searching for a woman’s maiden name; eventually they do discover it. Solutions to brick-wall problems take time, persistence and the willingness to try different strategies. But whatever you do, don’t give up. Maybe you just need a bigger bulldozer.

Highly Qualified

From the January 2006 issue of Family Tree Magazine.