The longer one does family history research, the more likely one is to discover lucky finds. Some truly come out of the blue, whereas others occur because of unrelenting curiosity. Either type is cause for celebration. I suspect most are due to the latter instance, so I thought I would share some of the finds I have made recently, in the hopes they could provide suggestions for other researchers.
- A biography published in 1895 of a man who, although I did not realize it at first, was related to me. Moral: throw a wide net and be open to possibilities. Take note of interesting resources that may be useful in the future.
- A history book from a small and remote county that did not appear to be available anywhere other than eBay. Moral: before you buy, use the entire name of the book and the author as search terms and review all google hits. Someone may have scanned that resource and posted it on-line.
- Digital images of baptismal records that church officials told me could not possibly exist, yet did. Moral: search FamilySearch for images of resources. These people have been copying documents for a long time and have accessed records in unexpected places.
- Passenger documentation for my great-great grandparents, who emigrated from Holland in 1867, that was not available on-line but was in the Calgary library. Moral: go that extra step to find the document that was indexed on-line. So much more information might be near at hand.
- The documents I tried to locate in the library (the same ones as in Number 4) but couldn’t find until I asked the librarian in the history department for help. Moral: when you can’t find it yourself – ask the experts! They have much more experience with the sometimes complicated indexing systems of genealogical resources.
So, good luck this month with your family history projects. Keep searching, follow those hunches, and ask others for help on your quest. You just might get lucky!
This article was originally printed in the Bergen News and is being reprinted with permission.