I have strike my share of "brickwalls" in the study of my own family tree. What I've discovered is which our ancestors were a great deal more cellular than we ever thought. To assist you in your hunt for missing ancestors and the "lacking links" that will resolve your genealogy mysteries I am sharing the methods that have led to locating people you may think were useless or never mentioned on community records.
1. District Lines: The US was a rapidly building country start in the 19th century. Geographical characteristics often confused wherever one region started and still another concluded and at other instances areas were included as governmental districts were reassessed
civil war medical records and towns were integrated or expanded. Regardless of the purpose do not create off the possible that the ancestor may possibly take an alternative region than expected or that documents may occur in multiple counties.
Suggestion: Try neighboring counties and bigger cities that will have grown in remote counties. I found multiple ancestor counted twice (and in two different counties) on the census documents!
2. Migration: It's known from actually grade college history lessons that there clearly was a tremendous migration to the european United States and territories. When an ancestor moves missing from the records it is a excellent exercise to try the documents of adjacent states or recently opened territories. Understanding when territories were exposed for homesteading and where land was presented with for military service also assists in tracking down evasive ancestors.
Idea: Use Wikipedia to find times counties were formed, territories were opened, and when claims were granted statehood.
3. Reverse Migration: An avenue of genealogy research that is frequently neglected is opposite migration-when the area was not great for farming or the conditions were also tough, or homesickness became an excessive amount of, our ancestors occasionally gone home or returned to the East. Our beloved example may be the 1860 Census of Lee County, VA. The census taker not just was painstaking about record the beginning state of each resident, but additionally outlined their delivery county. The number of people born in Western Tennessee to parents who have been natives of Lee Region is fascinating.
Hint: Do not eliminate people of similar names but born in different states that you can relative to your ancestors. That individual born in Mo who reveals up on a Virginia census may be a missing relationship!
4. Traveling: We shouldn't believe that traveling started with the technology the large jet! I've found ancestors in New York resorts and on ship manifests either going to or returning from visits abroad. An ancestor's occupation might have called for travel. For instance I found persons elected to political office living far from your home in Washington, DC. I found one family who seemed to have vanished on a UK Census!
Idea: Even if you're convinced an ancestor was a non-traveling farmer, search border crossings, vessel individual provides, and actually foreign census records-you may possibly be in for really a shock!
5. Civil Conflict: The Conflict Between the Claims was the very first conflict which caused a significant change in quite a few ancestors'locations. Soldiers were moved from North to South, and South to North, and from one side of the country to another. Crops were ruined along side livelihoods creating individuals to go from homesteads. The African American citizenry comprised largely of lately separated slaves, were first enumerated by name on the 1870 census after many had left the plantations wherever they lived ahead of the War. I discovered one ancestor from Tennessee who had been captured by the Union military in the North and kept there following his release.
Hint: When researching an ancestor who offered in the Civil Conflict make sure you look at their day and place of launch since it can be quite a idea to wherever they could have slept after the War.
Do not give up. With perseverance you will find who you are seeking wherever you least expect to find them.
The Wall