Breaking Down The Brick Walls In Our Family Research

We all have our brick walls in our family research. You go so far and hit the brick wall. Over and over that brick wall is does not move. Then by chance some how you crack that brick wall and hit pay dirt.

I have cracked a few brick walls just by blogging about a certain ancestor right here. Next thing I know I get an email from a distant relative and I get documented information to the Mayflower on my Lockwood family. From John Lockwood who fought in the Civil War to the Mayflower because of this blog. How great is that.

Other brick walls are unmovable. But with hints from others and continual research I may get another brick wall to come down. Andrew Daly I will not give up on you.

Tonight I visited Randy Seaver to read his post about breaking down brick walls at Genea-Musings Target the FAN Club to tackle "Elusive Ancestors" problems

Briefly from the posting we are to see our family research as the bull's eye and our ancestor as the target. As we search for information on our ancestor we may find information by moving out one ring of the target. Search for family members. Next search for those who lived in the area. Search for others with the same surname. By spreading out our research we may hit our target.

After reading Randy's post I was in search for other articles on brick walls.

All I had to do was go to http://www.google/ and post the question " brick wall in genealogy research " to come up with articles, books to buy and free charts to print.

Want to read more articles just go to http://www.cyndislist.com/hitbrick.htm There is more than enough to read for many nights.

I also found from my google search a new blog for me and this is just part of her article. She keeps it simple, brief and clear, which I like.

She writes
7 Keys to Getting Over Your Genealogy Brick Wall
By Corinne Bridgewater
Here are her 7 Key steps

Post questions on forums
If you know the area where the person lived try the white pages
Check into and then subscribe to Google alerts
Join RSS feeds from good strong genealogical sites
Put an ad in a newspaper, even overseas if need be
Put up a website about your search
Put up a hubpage or Squidoo lens about your search

She also writes...
If you need to break down the genealogy brick walls try these 6 steps
Write down everything that you know
Do not assume that you wrote it all down before. Go through your notes
Know exactly what it is you are looking for. If it is maiden names, birth, death, surnames, ports of entries then go and Google it. You may get ideas from what comes up.
Try different ways of spelling their names
Come at it from a different angle. Find a small bit of information that you are missing and follow the clue.
What about the property they owned? Follow land deeds
Read the whole article at http://ezinearticles.com/?7-Keys-to-Getting-Over-Your-Genealogy-Brick-Wall&id=2413086

And for forms to help us do our research just go to http://www.cyndislist.com/supplies.htm for a start. Or you can go to family tree for more forms .. http://www.familytreemagazine.com/info/researchforms

I have always had my research on the computer and no master list on each relative to what I have and do not have. I have time lines on some and not on others. That is one of my goals to work on. Getting time lines on my relatives to see what I have and do not have on each of them.

For tonight and for a few more nights this is plenty for me to read. Hope that you enjoy some of the articles and forms. Please look around at some of my other postings before leaving and I hope you visit again. Grace