Genealogy roadblock or brick wall.....

It just seems like no matter where I look, I find the same information and the same roadblock. It is time to concentrate on something else for a while but I just can’t seem to quit looking. There must be this bit of information right under my nose which I can not seem to make sense of.

Through my genealogy research I have noticed a couple of things about roadblocks or brick walls. You know how people say, “why don’t you sleep on it?” Well I need to follow that advice….and I know it! Deep down inside my heart, I know what to do. I know that the clue I am looking for is out there. I may have been looking at it for some time and not realizing that it is the key which will break the brick wall wide open. I have spent a great deal of time looking at the Smith Families from Darke County this year. And it is time for me to look at other families … OR NO Genealogy research at all.

I have learned that when I can totally separated myself from my research for a period of time, not one day, not one hour, more like weeks or even a couple of months, when I return to my search, I will always break down a brick wall. But as long as I keep looking the information stays murky at best and out of sight. Now if you are reading my blog, you have probably have experienced this as well.

Early in my research, there was so much information to be found that the bits came out of everywhere I looked. I learned something new every evening I did research and the more I found the more I wanted to know. Every piece of information brought more questions and the continued search for more people. Fifty people in my tree became one hundred and fifty which became one thousand and fifty and exponentially it has grown to near 4000 people. With that growth comes and yearning or a compulsive desire which builds on the “knowing” that the information is out there and it could be found with the next search that you make!

Then the search turn into another and another then you find another bit and the compulsion is fed and the search continues…on and on in the vast space we call the internet. Who would have guessed 150 years ago that a middle aged woman could sit in front of a piece of equipment and find the pension file for her GGGrandfather which the US government neatly packed away in the National Archives to preserve it for all time…Heck, I am sure that my Grandfather 25 years ago would never have believed it…He started all this by tell me that he born in Roanoke, Indiana when he was born in Uniondale, Indiana!

So I am going to TRY….to take the breather that I know that my search needs!!!!!

Ah…maybe next week…and for sure when I leave for Denmark on September 9th….because the PC is stay home…

Good night and good searching!
Jan