Brick Walls – Down
At times we encounter ‘Brick Walls’ in our family history research. Months and years of searching for information to break through the wall seems to be an exercise in futility.
I’ve lived in that state of frustration for over 40 years in relation to one of my 2nd great grandfathers …. and then, last week, the wall crumbled.
Through a series of cumulative events so unique that they wouldn’t even be considered by a fantasy writer, I received notes and tips that led me to the documents needed to destroy the wall. As I write this note, I’m looking at the documents that I never dreamed of finding. They still don’t seem real. The quest to find them started before our marriage. Before our children were born. Goodness… I was still in junior high school back when they were built of mud and straw.
The key event that precipitated my good fortune was the day I posted the information about my ancestor on the web. In my case the key post was on my own family history site, but within the same week, old, musty postings to genealogy forums I’d made almost twenty years ago have also resulted in responses to the same question.
Moral of the story. No matter how hopeless the quest for an ancestor seems, if you use the tools available to us today, eventually, you’ll find the clue you need to break down your own brick wall(s).
Don’t give up. Don’t loose faith. Remain active in your quest.
Death Certificates and Records on line – Free
A number of states have posted death certificates on their websites that are free downloads. If you haven’t looked to see if there are any that you need, take some time this week to download them for use as primary source documents to support your genealogical data. Some sites list the primary details but not the images.
Note: most of the "bit.ly" links are to FamilySearch.
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Thanks for posting these links! I’ve been using quite a few of them already, but had no idea there were so many now. I’ll be adding them to my research toolbox.
Lee,
Thanks for posting the links to the Death Certificates. Guess what I found in Hawaii? Another Silva who was born in Cape Verde Islands and was a contemporary of Ernie’s gggrandfather, Joseph Silva. It is the only other record I have found of any Silva’s that don’t simply state they were born in Portugal. I will be following up on this Antone Silva born in 1833.