Do you have a branch on your family tree that you’ve avoided working on because the pieces just don’t seem to snap into place? Our October speaker, Colette Hokanson, suggested that we pursue this genealogical conundrum as we would a thousand-piece puzzle – one link at a time. Like a puzzle, Colette suggested that we begin with the edge pieces – all the facts that we have acquired from reliable sources. The goal is to construct an accurate family history by connecting various pieces together into a final “image”.
Colette defined the edge pieces as the data found in traditional sources such as birth, marriage, death, and census records, immigration forms, DNA, and tax records. Filling in the middle of our thousand-piece puzzle requires locating the clues found in probate and church records, newspaper clippings, military records, and land records. She also suggested taking advantage of the full-text search option offered at FamilySearch.org to locate additional unique sources, such as lawsuits and other legal documents.
When we locate a possible new clue that might fit into our puzzle, we need to critically evaluate the reliability of the source and avoid trying to “make it fit” just because there seem to be some similarities. Don’t fall into the trap of following a clue to its end only to find that you’ve gone down a genealogical rabbit hole and wasted time on a non-relative. We need to critically evaluate each piece of evidence to avoid collecting useless information.
Colette cited two case studies that highlighted the necessity of looking for patterns, resolving conflicts in information, being flexible when it comes to spelling variations, using a timeline to see where data is missing, and focusing on new avenues to search. In the end, she told us to put all the pieces together, evaluate all of our newly gathered information, and above all, stay curious and flexible. Our genealogical puzzles won’t solve themselves, but with diligence and focus, we can fill in the missing pieces of our family tree.
December is Show & Tell month – tell us how you solved your most difficult genealogical puzzle!