If you’ve got an ancestor on which you are stuck, have you completely and exhaustively researched all their children? It’s possible that in some record on one of those children is a clue to the parent who is giving you difficulty.
Don’t just research the child from whom you descend–research them all.
Don’t just focus on online sources either.
2 Responses
I found the name of my 4th great grandmother in the marriage record of one sibling. Lucky for me–the name was Jones.
I had a problem with the surviving sibs of my gr-grandmother while trying to find more on her parents. Finally found two of them while one is still missing. Female of course, haven’t found a marriage or her death…so who knows what happened to her. I was chasing one man who looked like a sib, but never got that definitive proof, finally found his burial record on Findagrave and what clinched me for me was that the place he was born, it could only have been the one i was looking for. The other, a female, I went looking for her mother on the 1870 census. Found a woman who might have been her daughter, they had the same first name and there was a male enumerated, with her who exactly matched birth year and place for my gr-gr-grandmother. Her initials were A.M. for Anna Marie and this “guy” had initials of A. W. Yes, I did look at the actual census and not just the transcription. So I researched this younger “Ann” and ultimately found out on her death cert. the name of her brother as her father. Wrong info., but there is no way she was a daughter of the bro. since “Ann” was 2 years older than him. Also his name was rather distinct too as he was John W. S. (surnname). How many would have these initials? Looking for Isabella Bergmann b, ca. 1852, last seen (and only time) on the 1860 census as an 8 year old in Milwaukee, WI. And the hunt goes on….