One of the best things you can do to work through brick walls and the like is to organize the information you have on your problem person or family. Pretend someone other than you is reading it–preferably someone who knows nothing about the family.
Organizing this information about your brick wall person is more than just dumping images into a word file and making a PDF. All that does is give you a virtual form of an unorganized pile of papers. Organization starts by putting things at least in chronological order, making certain things are legible, indicating where things were obtained, including your reasoning for knowing a record is for the right person (particularly for records with few details or situations where the connection may not be obvious).
It also includes putting things together as if someone unfamiliar with the family was going to read it.
And explaining any conclusions you have made–clearly and in a way that makes sense.
I don’t care if you have the occasional run on sentence. I don’t care if you have a comma out of place. I don’t care if you accidentally spelled “there” as “htere.” I don’t even care if you were typing when tired and once wrote “hear” when you meant “here” (hey it sometimes happens). We all screw up grammar or spelling occasionally (although spellcheck will help with that).
The point is–organize and explain. You will have a better chance of solving your problem if you do.
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