The thing about cliches is that they are sometimes correct.
I located an entry for a relative in the California State Death Index. The entry (at FamilySearch and at Ancestry.com) provided the surname of the father and the mother and the date and state of birth for the deceased. The temptation was to start searching online in a variety of places in hopes of “finding something.”
That can be a temptation, but at this point I really don’t have much information and I don’t have the actual death certificate to know what additional information it contains. The complete names of parents and town of birth may be there. While that information could be incorrect, it would give me more details upon which to base my searches and help me to determine if I have the same person in earlier records.
So I am going to wait with additional database queries until I have the additional details. It can be frustrating to wait, but I may easily spin my wheels or follow down the wrong trails without additional information–especially when a record I can obtain could provide me with that.
No responses yet