My Family Research

I have researched my own family for more than 30 years, and the lines below are the ones I am still working on. I share them for two reasons. They show how I actually research, including wrong turns and ruled-out ideas, and a reader who knows one of these families might hold the missing record.

Everything here is about people who have died. I do not publish information about living relatives. Each page labels what I can prove, what DNA supports, what is only a hypothesis, and what I have ruled out.

How I work a brick wall

1. Write down exactly what is proven and cite the record.
2. State the question in one sentence.
3. List every hypothesis and test each one against the records and the DNA.
4. Record what failed, so I never re-test it.
5. Ask for help from people who descend from the same family.

If you want to try this on your own research, the Ohio Records: Start Here guide and the Brick Walls board are good places to start.