If you cannot find a person in a record where they are “supposed” to be, ask yourself how your search process would change if one detail that you think is correct actually is not?

Or if one detail about the person is wrong in the record?

Maybe you are looking in the right place, but the date of the event is off. Maybe you have the date right, but the location you think is right is not. Maybe the person’s age is off by one year.

There are a variety of ways this could play out, but changing one thing could alter where and how you search for that person. That’s exactly what I had to do when searching for a birth certificate based on the date of birth given in an infant baptismal record. The pastor had one detail about the birth incorrect.

And that altered where I found it.

Change one thing about your person and see how that changes your search approach.

Join Michael at either the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, or the Family History Library in Salt Lake City this summer!

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