A recurring theme I heard at RootsTech this month was the value of taking a second (or third) look at the documents you’ve found. I know that I almost always see new things when I do. I think that’s because I’m becoming a better genealogist. And I’m learning more about my family, so my eyes are open to more clues.
When I was flying to RootsTech, I re-read the divorce case documents I’d received in January for my 2nd great grandfather, George Washington Adams (1845-1938) and his second wife, Della (1870-1943). I’d read the whole divorce file at least once before but it wasn’t until this re-reading that I realized that the couple had had a daughter who was born and died between the 1910 census and the time of the divorce in 1920.
Since I noticed that little detail, I was able to find her death certificate at the Family History Library (with the help of my friend and professional genealogist Maria Tello). I was so glad I’d taken a few minutes to re-read that document in preparation for my trip to the Family History Library.
In her RootsTech session, Digging for Details: Getting the Full Story, Jen Ballwin of FindMyPast spoke about the value of mining every single detail from a document. She said that you should “treat each document like it’s the only document you’ll ever find on that ancestor.” I think that’s great advice. If you haven’t already been doing that, you’d be well served if you took the time to go through your documents again and record every teeny detail.
That might feel like an overwhelming proposition (I know it does to me). But like everything else that’s overwhelming, the key is to break it into small parts.
Since my plan is to focus on just one family line in 2017, I’ll see if I can’t spend some time re-examining all the documents I have for a particular ancestor when I’m researching him/her. I think the exception will be those documents that I’ve already abstracted and transcribed. That process gives me the chance to be really thorough and I find that details come jumping out at me. So I’m pretty confident I’ve mined those well.
It can be really tempting to limit ourselves to looking for new documents and checking documents off a checklist as we find them. (That checkmark makes you feel so accomplished!) But if we don’t make the most out of the information contained in the documents we find, we’re not doing ourselves any favors. Go ahead, take a second look!
Illustration by Kate Ter Haar via Flickr. Used under Creative Commons License.
oh yes, that happened to me, too! I re-read the naturalization papers for my great-uncle in law and found a new information on my great-aunts birthplace. And.. tadaaa..I could find her birth entry on microfilm. I can’t stretch the importance of going back to the data you have. I blogged about it a while back. https://schmidtbarbara.wordpress.com/2013/07/21/back-to-the-data-you-already-have/
Thanks for commenting, Barbara, and echoing my message! I also appreciate your posting a link to your excellent blog post.
Great advice. I too have found important details when going through documents again. Oh to have an 8th day of the week JUST for family history research!!
Wouldn’t that be amazing! I wonder how much time I would spend researching if I were retired….
Thanks for commenting!
I’m retired and I can tell you I spend nearly every day doing something with my genealogy, whether researching, organizing, or writing. It’s a great life.
I’m jealous, Lisa! Enjoy that great life of yours. 🙂
Oh, yes, such an essential suggestion, together with not making unwarranted assumptions.
One of my ancestors disposed of his land in his will, bequeathing to two named children and provisional disposition to “all my children.” Not until I found the land records that actually sold the land did I find records of another child who lived in a different State . . . which served to make me a lot more cautious about interpreting those documents 🙂
That’s an amazing example, Jade, of making assumptions. I know I do it all the time, even though I try not to.
Your comment about abstracting and transcribing some documents was KEY information. I can’t over-emphasize the important of doing that. We always notice more details when we have to transcribe them. I do it for every document.
Thank you! Right now in my pension file I’m transcribing typewritten documents, which at first felt a little silly. But I’m definitely noticing more details than I did when I just read them. Thanks for your comment!
This advice helped demolish a brick wall. I spent many hours earlier this week searching for the elusive Muriel Heenan who was show on an 1871 census aged 2 but for whom I could find no subsequent census entry. Nor could I find a death record or a birth or baptism. Only when looking at the original again today did i see that Ancestry had transcribed the info incorrectly and it was in fact a Maurice Heenan. I take part of the blame though – I had failed to notice this child was recorded as a son…..
Thanks for attesting to the value of taking another look! And congrats on getting through that brick wall. Your anecdote is causing me to think about which documents I should be looking at again today!
Janine, where do you save all the details you mine from a document? If in your Reunion software, where do you put the “odd” details?
Louise, I put everything in Reunion. The odd details go into the Note section of a person’s record.
I didn’t realize not everyone did this until recently. My own family search has relied on absolutely squeezing every document for details – I’ve gone as far as researching the FORMS the information is printed on. A few years ago, I had the pleasure of researching my first old Ontario family with British roots and was flabbergasted at the flood of materials.
I now suffer from a kind of genealogical envy for all families with deep ties in a country with great records in English!