Sooner or later in our genealogical research, each of us will find ourselves up against the dreaded brick wall. That is unfortunately the nature of our hobby. And the further back we go, those brick walls will eventually become insurmountable. However, don’t throw in the towel too easily. Oftentimes, the stumbling block is us. We become so focused on our problem that we can’t see the forest for the trees. That’s when it’s time to step back for a while. When we return, it is best if we shift our perspective a bit.
Over the years, I have hit brick walls and stepped back, sometimes for years. But my own dogged determination eventually brings me back. And when I come back, I am trying to look at the situation in a new way. Think of it like the negative space art below; when we shift our focus from the subject to the space around the subject, a new image forms:
The following are some examples of problems I have faced in my own research. I will describe what I did after exhausting the usual methods. And when I say exhaust, I mean it; I searched for every record possible pertaining to these ancestors. After stepping away from these ancestors for a while, I revisited each scenario from a new point of view.
- I wanted to find out the names of Daniel and Susanna’s three children.
- I wanted to discover the identities of Martha’s parents.
- I wanted to discover the identities of Alonzo’s parents.
- I wanted to discover the identities of Daniel’s parents.
Scenario 1
I wanted to find out the names of Daniel and Susanna’s three children, so I looked at their marriage record.
“How can a marriage record tell you about their future children?”
It doesn’t. However, at this point in time, Ohio marriage records contained a few other pieces of information, such as:
- The date of the marriage,
- The name of the groom,
- The (maiden) name of the bride, and
- The name of the wedding officiant.
“The wedding date? How can that tell you the names of their children?”
Their wedding date told me nothing about the names of Daniel’s future children. I needed to look beyond the date. I needed to look beyond the groom. I needed to look beyond the bride.
“The wedding officiant?”
Yes! I needed to find out more about him. And as it turns out, he was the first settled Lutheran pastor in the county, who eventually built a church. Upon further digging, I found out the name of his church and discovered that the same church still exists today.
“So what?”
Churches keep records of births, marriages, and deaths. Since the reverend had married Daniel and Susanna, perhaps the couple were members of his church. If they were, there may possibly be records of their children’s baptisms.
In this instance, instead of focusing on Daniel, I searched the periphery: the people, places, and things around him. This is what is known as cluster research or the FAN Principle (FAN = Family, Associates, & Neighbors).
Scenario 2
I wanted to discover the identities of Martha’s parents, so I turned to the available census records and a plat map.
Now that you know there is a method to my madness, what do you suppose I could learn from census records (I mean besides the obvious stuff) and a plat map?
In census records, the people listed near your ancestors were their neighbors, and you will often find that family members lived close by one another. Since I knew Martha’s maiden name was “Andrews,” I searched the census records for any other “Andrews” living in close proximity.
Along those same lines, I knew that Martha’s husband, Alonzo, was a landowner, so I turned to a plat map to see if there were any Andrews who owned land in the vicinity of Alonzo’s land. While I was not successful in locating an Andrews, I did locate three other men who were related to Alonzo in some way:
Scenario 3
I wanted to discover the identities of Alonzo’s parents, so I researched his brother.
Death records contain a lot of useful information including the names of the decedent’s parents. Unfortunately, I was unable to locate a death record for Alonzo. That is when I began researching Alonzo’s siblings. I discovered that he had a brother, Lafayette. Unlike Alonzo, I was able to track down Lafayette’s death record, and the death record contained the names of both his parents, which means they were also Alonzo’s parents!
Specifically researching your ancestor’s siblings like this is known as collateral research.
Scenario 4
I wanted to discover the identities of Daniel’s parents, so I researched everyone with the last name of Burrell in Tuscarawas County, Ohio.
This was collateral research on a much larger scale than my previous example. I knew that Daniel was the son of one of three brothers who resided in Tuscarawas County, Ohio. I was hoping that I could figure out which of the three men was Daniel’s father through the process of elimination:
- I looked at each brother’s household in the 1820 & 1830 census records, and
- I created a chart wherein I recorded the sex and birth range for every child listed in each of the three households.
- After that, I plugged in the names of every Burrell child in Tuscarawas County that I could identify.
I knew Daniel was born circa 1812, so I was hoping to find one unidentified male born from 1811-1815 in one of the three brother’s household. Unfortunately, I found two:
So, while I was not able to solve the puzzle of Daniel’s parentage, I did discover a lot about his extended family. That, in itself, was well worth the time I invested in the Burrell’s of Tuscarawas County. After all, they are my family as well. And that sentence sums up how I feel about cluster research in general. When I am studying a direct line ancestor, I want as close to the full picture as I can get, and cluster research helps facilitate that.
When researching, always remember that none of us live in a vacuum. We are each surrounded by other people, places, and things—our community. The same holds true for your ancestors. The stories of their lives are woven into the stories of the others with whom they shared their lives.
Also, if you move beyond solely researching your direct line ancestors, your genealogy experience may become much more meaningful to you. After all, your ancestors are more than data points on a two-dimensional tree. They are each unique, multi-faceted individuals with their own stories to tell. I encourage you to learn all about them and the people, places, and things that surrounded them.
Because I researched my fifth great-grandfather’s whole family, I found out he was called “Tip,” and came from “a long lineage of large and powerful men and women, including his brother, Joe, who was a larger-than-life character known as “The Lewis Giant.”
Because I researched my second great-grandfather’s whole family, I realized he was not the only sibling who fought in the Civil War; he was, however, the only sibling to return home. Upon finding this out, this family immediately became real to me as I tried to fathom the depths of their grief.
If you are at an impasse in your genealogical research, I urge you to shift your focus from your ancestors and “search the periphery.” Get creative and try to think of ways in which your ancestor’s “cluster” could possibly reveal answers to your questions. Even if it does not yield results, or even if you are not up against a brick wall to begin with, searching the periphery can be a great way to bring your ancestors to life.
You can find out more about cluster research, collateral research, and the FAN Principle here.