Category talk:Archives

There have been many times where I come up against major road blocks toward completing my family tree. I've learned that any name that does not receive a leaf usually indicates that there is something wrong with the information entered for that person. Either the birth city or birth date, or even the spelling of the name can lead to road blocks. The lack of census information, due to either the fire damage that occurred, or the individual is not old enough (anything 1950 or later), has also proven to be quite a deterrence. I have discovered a little path around that road block. I had a grandmother's incomplete name, with a birthday, but no accurate birth city. I knew she was an upper class citizen of Alabama, so I took a risk and searched for school yearbooks. Viola`, she showed up in a women's finishing school yearbook from Virginia. Luckily, that particular yearbook published the students' current address. Once I was able to update her profile with the new information, leaves started appearing and her side of the family became more complete. Names started falling into place where they belonged like an easy puzzle. Another break-through I discovered was US City Directory Information. Not necessarily the selection on the right hand of the search screen, but the item found in the list of searchable databases. I have found residences in groups of 4-5 years by using that. There is a wealth of information available if you just use your imagination and dig in to research.