Researching family history can be a very rewarding activity. Bringing the stories of long-lost as well as well-known relatives to life is often very cathartic. We see that while the world changes in very significant ways, some things never do.

Generally, when a family history researcher is looking to find a difficult to locate family member, they look first to extended family lines and connections. In uncertain times, if someone has a lifeboat (housing, job, food, etc.) to share they will often offer that first to family. Not always. But this is usually a good early approach when trying to locate folks and connections. Additionally if it's a long settled community under examination, researching neighbors who are/were located nearby from previous records may yield useful information. Of course, census-takers/record-makers don't always follow the same route but it can be helpful to look around in the next or previous versions of these documents.

An issue that may make family history research more difficult is when a family "myth" becomes so ingrained in a family history story that it is difficult to sort out "who is actual whom" and this can greatly complicate efforts to locate that family connection, lifeboats included. Well-meaning folks will often propagate these family history connections/names without realizing that they have no basis in fact, the stories have just been repeated over and over to the exclusion of any real legitimate link.

Sometimes the link or name is from documented sources but is nevertheless wrong. Death certificates can often contain incredibly useful information but they can also contain incorrect information. Informants, often under the very real stress of grieving, will try to give the best answers they know, sometimes an outright guess, and these are often "set in stone" as incontrovertible sources - that still need to be proven.

Other times a link to a famous or historical figure is claimed as fact with no other basis than "that's what great aunt Helen told..." somebody. It is therefore "fact." Not true necessarily but "fact." The link will often fall apart upon simple closer examination but undoing family history lore comes at a bit of a cost of disbelief and hurt feelings. It shouldn't, but it does.

The goal of working on genealogy should be the fair retelling of a family's history, warts and all, with the ultimate aim of bringing folks together to celebrate those who have gone before. We are all the products of the folks who struggled, failed, struggled some more, and eventually succeeded in moving the family of man forward.

In the end, we are all related to each other, it just depends on how far back you have to go to find that connection, and it would be awesome if we could treat each other accordingly.
JD

Researching family history can be a very rewarding activity. Bringing the stories of long-lost as well as well-known relatives to life is often very cathartic. We see that while the world changes in very significant ways, some things never do.

Generally, when a family history researcher is looking to find a difficult to locate family member, they look first to extended family lines and connections. In uncertain times, if someone has a lifeboat (housing, job, food, etc.) to share they will often offer that first to family. Not always. But this is usually a good early approach when trying to locate folks and connections. Additionally if it's a long settled community under examination, researching neighbors who are/were located nearby from previous records may yield useful information. Of course, census-takers/record-makers don't always follow the same route but it can be helpful to look around in the next or previous versions of these documents.

An issue that may make family history research more difficult is when a family "myth" becomes so ingrained in a family history story that it is difficult to sort out "who is actual whom" and this can greatly complicate efforts to locate that family connection, lifeboats included. Well-meaning folks will often propagate these family history connections/names without realizing that they have no basis in fact, the stories have just been repeated over and over to the exclusion of any real legitimate link.

Sometimes the link or name is from documented sources but is nevertheless wrong. Death certificates can often contain incredibly useful information but they can also contain incorrect information. Informants, often under the very real stress of grieving, will try to give the best answers they know, sometimes an outright guess, and these are often "set in stone" as incontrovertible sources - that still need to be proven.

Other times a link to a famous or historical figure is claimed as fact with no other basis than "that's what great aunt Helen told..." somebody. It is therefore "fact." Not true necessarily but "fact." The link will often fall apart upon simple closer examination but undoing family history lore comes at a bit of a cost of disbelief and hurt feelings. It shouldn't, but it does.

The goal of working on genealogy should be the fair retelling of a family's history, warts and all, with the ultimate aim of bringing folks together to celebrate those who have gone before. We are all the products of the folks who struggled, failed, struggled some more, and eventually succeeded in moving the family of man forward.

In the end, we are all related to each other, it just depends on how far back you have to go to find that connection, and it would be awesome if we could treat each other accordingly.
JD