Piecing Together My Genealogy Finds

After five years of researching for myself and others across the U.S. and in the UK, I feel that I've developed some great techniques and uncovered a myriad of resources.  I've hit roadblocks and dead-ends, like everyone else.  Unless you were lucky enough to have been handed a complete, well-researched, fully documented family tree that fulfilled all your family history needs, you too will be struggling with genealogy puzzles.  I certainly don't have all the answers, but will share what works for me.


Luckily, I became interested in genealogy in an era when many online resources were available and more were being digitized every day.  I had decades of professional experience collecting, organizing, and analyzing data for research and business applications, so the tech approach suited me.  By nature, I am a questioner.  Probing for the "answer", the proof, the documents to back up the assumptions is how I work.  However, I've had to accept that at times I can't prove my assertions to my own satisfaction.... so, I report what I know or suspect, note how I came to that conclusion, and then add the item to my follow-up file.  Maybe next year I'll find the definitive proof.


The intent of this blog is to document how I've been solving genealogy puzzles and putting pieces together into stories from what I've found.  It will wander around through my family and the families of others I've been researching.   Occasionally I find a great story on someone not really related to my research subjects, but that's interesting too as it reveals something of the time and I'll write it up too.  Overall it's an attempt to document some really interesting lives I've uncovered and hopefully will aid others in seeing how I found out about them.


I hope you enjoy -- come back soon !