This world of ours is in “instant mode.”\u00a0 Fast food.\u00a0 Immediate answers to life’s pressing questions.\u00a0 Instant rebates taken at the cash register.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But, genealogy is not immediate nor instant, the majority of the time!<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n If you have searched for 20 years on the same ancestor without proving parents or documenting military service or discovering origins in Ireland–or even in New York and Vermont–I am not going to find the answer in an instant.\u00a0\u00a0 It takes even me time.<\/p>\n Oh, I know where to look that you will not have thought of or known about.\u00a0 And I usually expand the kinship network<\/em> of your ancestor as I go<\/span> through the records to ensure that I have other places to look and other families to examine.\u00a0 Your notes and summaries provide only the beginning:\u00a0 There is little value in needlessly duplicating your searches–especially if you did not find\u00a0your ancestor in those sources.\u00a0 A re-examination of the records, however, with\u00a0more experienced eyes.\u00a0 With other\u00a0 names.\u00a0 \u00a0With supporting facts from other records often tips the evidence in your favor.<\/p>\n The first time through the records, you often concentrate on the name of the ancestor only.\u00a0If he is not there, you move on to another index, another record.\u00a0<\/p>\n STOP.\u00a0 For\u00a0just a\u00a0minute.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n Almost always, I redo the census searches–looking for these important facts.\u00a0 And if your ancestor appears in the census with people of other ages or other surnames in his household, I check every one of them out–to what ever degree that place allows me to do so.<\/p>\n If there are multiple versions of the censuses, abstracted and indexed by different persons, I search them all:\u00a0 As a check on my readinof\u00a0 the names.\u00a0 As a check on all of the details recorded in each version.\u00a0 Where another reading is dramatically different from mine, I re-check the original copy.<\/p>\n Remember that the US census schedules that we read on microfilm and that have been scanned onto Ancestry.com and Heritage Quest.com are COPIES<\/strong>.\u00a0 And remember, oh remember, that for some critical areas of the United States–like Central and Western New York and some cities in Pennsylvania–the original, handwritten, corrected<\/span> versions of the census do exist!\u00a0\u00a0 For Seneca County New York, whole sections of families were omitted when the enumerator or his helpers copied the pages to send to Washington.\u00a0 You will think you fell asleep at the reader or clicked on the wrong page on your computer screen.\u00a0 No.\u00a0 It isn’t your fault that you have only had access to the scanned pages, often indexed by people who do not speak American English nor\u00a0are they familiar with American names and nicknames.\u00a0 UNTIL NOW…<\/p>\n Now you know that\u00a0 the original copy, with the notes made by the deputies as they canvassed the neighborhood, may exist.\u00a0 So if you have only checked the internet version, you have work to do.\u00a0 If I am tracing your family, I do it for you.\u00a0 Find the originals and search them carefully.<\/p>\n When there are no originals to check, compare the various versions available to you.\u00a0 And when in doubt, always read the whole district or neighborhood where your ancestors and their families lived on the microfilmed or scanned images.\u00a0 Do not rely just on the index.\u00a0 Too often, you will find, as I do, other people not indexed on the same page or the next page or the one before.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, back\u00a0in the instant answer line…<\/strong><\/p>\n It takes time to re-read and compare the versions of the census.\u00a0 Please do not expect to have your 20-year problem resolved, with documentation, with full analysis, with pertinent comments and follow-up in supporting sources, in 20 days.\u00a0 Not happenin’–with your ancestry nor anybody else’s.\u00a0 When you engage me to solve your hardest-to-find ancestor and link him to an unknown family unit, allow sufficient time for me to do it.\u00a0\u00a0 Your favorite genealogist of choice, Arlene Eakle\u00a0 http:\/\/arleneeakle.com<\/a><\/p>\n PS\u00a0 And please, read my blogs.\u00a0 Here I describe how I work and how I recommend that you work on your genealogy.\u00a0 [Did you know that this sentence is phrased as\u00a0 a member of the LDS Church says it?\u00a0 I am a member.\u00a0 And I speak the Church language.\u00a0 I work <\/span>on genealogy.]\u00a0 Here I describe the records and sources I use.\u00a0 Here I share the search strategies I follow.\u00a0 Here I outline the steps\u00a0I take to solve difficult research challenges.\u00a0 Free, on my blogs,\u00a0for all to use.<\/p>\n PPS\u00a0 And if you want me to take you by the hand, register for the Family History Expos Research Retreats at the Family History Library\u00a012-17 April 2010 and 25-30\u00a0Oct 2010.\u00a0 Just go to http:\/\/www.fhexpos.com<\/a> and sign up.\u00a0 I’ll be there to take you by the hand along with Jimmy Parker and Judy Wight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This world of ours is in “instant mode.”\u00a0 Fast food.\u00a0 Immediate answers to life’s pressing questions.\u00a0 Instant rebates taken at the cash register.\u00a0 But, genealogy is not immediate nor instant, the majority of the time!\u00a0 If you have searched for … Continue reading \n