I like to think that I can keep the everyday, non-genealogy motivated reader interested in the tales of my dearly departed ancestors, and my quest to locate them. Or even my journey in finding them. And did you also know (it’s rhetorical, don’t answer that), that I’m in the process of going through what I like to call genealogy continuing ed. Taking my skillset to the next level, so I can say that I’m researching to my best possible ability – for instance, knowing where I got all of my information from…which, unless it all came from an interview that you personally had with your great aunt Ethel (and even that info can be…tricky.), you really should know and document where you discovered that little tidbit of info for great-grandpa.

When I first began this hobby obsession with genealogy, I started out (as most people do) just trying to find that next name.

Similar to something like this: ”Grandpa grew up here, so if I look in this census I should find him as a toddler. Got ’em!…and his parents were…so-and-so. Great!  Now, if THEY grew up in the same area, then I’ll look in this census to find them with their individual families…and there they are….next!”  And so on and so forth.  I really just wanted to get from one generation to the next as quickly as possible, knowing the names, but not really learning anything about them personally.  In some instances, I didn’t even care about the siblings of my ancestors. I only wanted to see the direct trail that this family had taken, not even paying attention the little side-roads.

And that was my #1 mistake (of so many, that as a beginner, I would make). It turns out that all of those little side roads can be helpful in searching out the direction of your direct path. For example, I was unable to find great grandpa on the census, until FINALLY one day he shows up living with an uncle. An uncle? What uncle? Oh…the one that I never bothered to document! Suddenly recording all of those siblings (and they had really big families back in the day!) seemed a bit more important.  Similarly, I was unable to locate where my great-great grandfather was in Illinois.  I had found the woman he was married to, but it was only her and her daughters. 

Well that’s not right.  Where’s her husband?  Where’s her son?    Oh!  The son!  I searched for the son’s name via the census, and in the process, I was to find great-great grandpa Allen living in the next town and his son was living with him.  (Apparently, grandpa and grandma didn’t get along too well, ya know.)

So there ya go.  Today’s genealogy lesson.  Don’t neglect those side roads!  You never know what valuable information may be drifting along in the dust.

~C.