No matter how you arrived at a document, look at the pages before and after that document. When using actual bound books, the before and after pages often beg to be viewed. The researcher often views these pages when getting to the page that contains the item of interest.

When using digital images, it’s helpful to look at the image appearing before and after the located item. In fact, it may be helpful to look at a few images before and after the item of interest. Full-text searches at FamilySearch and other sites often take the researcher right to the name of entry and those pages before may provide context and more information than the actual page that contains the name of interest.

Before and after census pages contains names of neighbors and potentially other relatives.

Before and after pages in deed books may contain additional deeds involving some of the same people that were recorded at the same time.

Before and after court record pages may contain additional case information.

Before and after death certificates may contain records of others who died of the same illness at the same time–perhaps a family member.

And always go before enough to determine what book or volume of records the item of interest was actually located in.

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