Is it necessary to research your fifth cousin’s third mother-in-law whose daughter he was only married to for a few weeks?
My thought on this is no. There are rabbit holes and then there are genealogy paths that are essentially three thousand light years from your research. But when I mention that not every remotely connected person does not need to be researched, I get people who tell me that they do.
I still say they don’t. Most genealogists have not really thoroughly researched their much closer relatives—like direct ancestors, siblings of ancestors, and first cousins of ancestors. I find that really seeing all I can locate about those people usually keeps me occupied—with the occasional diversion to the second ancestral cousin who has an interesting record.
I understand the FAN network. But there’s a limit.
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