Generally speaking, a “reasonably exhaustive” search is one that searches for every record that a genealogist, familiar with and experienced with records in the time and place of the problem, would search in an attempt to answer the question at hand. It does not always mean to look for every scrap of paper ever created that could mention the ancestor.
For the most part (with exceptions), I’ve usually done this–sometimes using a more extreme approach I call “brute force” genealogy which means look for EVERYTHING that could possilby mention the ancestor’s name.
Of course not all records are created equally—some are more credible than others. It’s up to the researcher to decide which records to give credence to, which ones to take with a grain of salt, and which ones to not give much consideration to.
I”ve often done a more than reasonable approach–largely because one occasoinally finds unexpected treasures this way and partially because it gives me more experince with more records.
And that’s always good.
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