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| Barbara Vines Little, CG,* FNGS, FVGS |
A hound dog looking for a trail, runs in ever-widening circles until he finally finds the scent. In the process of finding that scent, he collects and analyzes a tremendous amount of data. If asked, he could tell you that two rabbits ate clover near the path yesterday, a squirrel climbed the oak tree this morning, and what the crow that just flew overhead ate yesterday. As family researchers, we need to learn to do the same. Collecting data is important, but learning to look at that data for clues to even more data, and eventually the answer to our question, is the key. Looking everywhere, may mean re-examining a document—not for answers to questions, but for clues to other sources, changing the area or time frame of a search, broadening the search to different types of records or looking for different types of information to provide the answer. Establishing an approximate birth or death date, when no vital statistics were kept, no bible record can be found, the religion did not practice infant baptism and no tombstone, obituary, or probate can be located is difficult, but we can usually create a date range through the use of multiple other sources or even sometimes, find the actual date. We’ll explore how to find those sources, whether we’re researching in Colonial Virginia, the Deep South, the Mid-or far West, or even the currently (February) frozen North.
*CG or Certified Genealogist is a service mark of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, used under license by Board-certified genealogists after periodic competency evaluation, and the board name is registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office.
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