It's strange how, often, when you start out tracing your family tree, you begin with one particular line, thinking, "I'd really like to know just how far back I can follow this line." And no matter how far you're able to get tracing grandparent after grandparent, it suddenly becomes clear that the more you know about each aunt and uncle, each cousin, niece and nephew, the more you REALLY start to know the particular family you're researching.
This is never more true than when you're looking at a census record for your great-great grandparents household in 1870 and suddenly, there are several people living there whose names you're unfamiliar with and whose surnames don't match anything you've ever read in relation to your family. "So, who are they? They don't appear to be servants or boarders. There is nothing telling me who these people are. Why did my gg-grandparents have random people living with them?"
Well, the more you research, the more you know. "Ah, I see that a sister of my great-grandmother married someone with that surname, and though neither of them are listed as living in the household, these three people with the same surname must be their children." And, further research proves the theory to be true. It's the little mysteries like that that keep things interesting. From such a record you can surmise that the parents of these children must have died sometime between the previous census and the one you're looking at, thus gaining a bigger perspective on what life must have been like at a particular point on the timeline of your ancestors.
What are some little mysteries you've come across in your research?
This is never more true than when you're looking at a census record for your great-great grandparents household in 1870 and suddenly, there are several people living there whose names you're unfamiliar with and whose surnames don't match anything you've ever read in relation to your family. "So, who are they? They don't appear to be servants or boarders. There is nothing telling me who these people are. Why did my gg-grandparents have random people living with them?"
Well, the more you research, the more you know. "Ah, I see that a sister of my great-grandmother married someone with that surname, and though neither of them are listed as living in the household, these three people with the same surname must be their children." And, further research proves the theory to be true. It's the little mysteries like that that keep things interesting. From such a record you can surmise that the parents of these children must have died sometime between the previous census and the one you're looking at, thus gaining a bigger perspective on what life must have been like at a particular point on the timeline of your ancestors.
What are some little mysteries you've come across in your research?
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