"What else can I do to trace my ancestors?"

When you get either too much or too little information when looking for an ancestor you need to dig deeper and look for more clues on your ancestor.

• Have you checked for Death Certificates, Probate and Wills? Names of parents or other family members may be mentioned.

• Have you looked for Obituaries, Tombstones, Graves and Cemeteries? Additional information and the town they are from may be mentioned and even another person mentioned on a tombstone.

• Have you found your ancestor on every census record and have you found all the information you can on their immediate family or who was staying with them? Visitors may be family members who you did not know exist. Following brothers and sisters and their information may lead you to more detail about their parents that your ancestor did not record.

• Do you know what religion your ancestor was? In some Countries like Ireland the only way you will find out more information is if you know what religion might have been.

• Have you obtained both a civil and a church marriage record? There can be additional information on either record, sometimes where a baptism took place is mentioned.

• If your ancestor arrived in New York they may have opened a savings bank account with the ‘Irish Immigrant Savings Bank’. The best years are between 1850’s and 1860’s as they give the names and addresses of relatives in Ireland. Have you checked bank records?

• If you cannot find your ancestor on a census record have you checked a neighbouring country? Like Canada to America or the United Kingdom to Ireland. Have you checked for transcribed errors? Your ancestor may not have been able to read and write and if he spoke with an accent his words could have been written down only as the agent thought. When you find him remember to look at his neighbours might they be relations as well?

• Did your ancestor live in ‘troubled’ times? There may be a military record for him or even put in prison.

• Have you checked the paper trail? Think of the Paper trail which is needed to live, work, love, marry and die and follow it, make sure you have a record for every event for every person in your family, census, civil and church.

• Have you asked your extended family for help? Check message boards for other people researching your line and if you find nothing put your query on the board remembering to be as specific as possible.

• Have you checked everything? Sometimes you have to go backwards, forwards and sideways to find where to go next.

Remember there is never a dead end just an area which has not yet been researched or found. If you still cannot find anything for your ancestor leave him be for a while and revisit the information a few months or a year later as records are being added to all the time.

The three most important elements when buying a house are 'Location, Location and Location' and the three most important elements when working with your Family Tree are 'Verify, Verify and Verify'.

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Gillian Weir Scully

Diploma in Family History - Awarded Distinction

Member of Association of Professional Genealogists

Researcher listed with
National Archives Ireland &
National Library Ireland