I was researching a relative in Champaign County, Illinois. A vertical file on the family contained a death notice from an undated, unsourced newspaper that indicated the relative was killed by a train.<\/p>\n
The only problem was that the newspaper clipping was a photocopy of the original. There was no reverse side I could look at for clues. There was just the clipping. I was concerned I would have a difficult time locating the person with just a clue that he died in Indiana.<\/p>\n
Then I remembered the deceased had an interest in an estate in the county where he lived. Researching court and probate records located a file settling up his estate. Included in those court records was a transcription of the coroner’s report from the Indiana county where he died. Problem solved without looking in one Indiana county after another.<\/p>\n
You can’t solve every problem this way, but exhausting all sources where you know the person had been may give you clues to help you pinpoint those other areas.<\/p>\n