Keep in mind that there’s not always a “need” for a record or a document. If a child has no “estate” or inheritance from a deceased parent, there will not be need to appoint a guardian. If an ancestor doesn’t belong to a church, his children probably won’t be christened there. If an ancestor does not own property, there will not be property tax records. If recording births was not mandatory when a relative was born far from the county seat, there might not be a record of their birth.<\/p>\n
If your ancestor didn’t care about his reputation among his neighbors, he probably didn’t bother to have his biography included in the local county history.<\/p>\n
It doesn’t mean that we should fail to look for records, but to keep in mind that sometimes there are pretty simple reasons why records do not exist.<\/p>\n