If at First You Succeed, Try, Try Again

Often when we do a deep and thorough search for records it is because less deep and less thorough searching has not given a result. We search until we find what we were looking for and then search no further.

There is another, and in the end much better, reason to make that thorough search. What if that first, easily (or not so easily) found record is incomplete and you settle for it? What if it is misleading or wrong? Part of the point of a thorough search is to avoid assuming that the first thing is both correct and all there is. Not so long ago, I found a man in a death register. The register gave me his place of birth and it was consistent with a couple of census entries I had found. Wonderful! It would need to be corroborated, of course. His birth and the making of that entry were separated in time by eighty years, but at least it gave me a starting point. It would have been the wrong starting point. I searched for a death certificate as well and when I found it, it gave a totally different place for his birth. The same name, the same death, the same county’s records, but the places of birth were 500 miles apart in different states. Hmm… What about cemetery records? They agreed with the death certificate. Every other indication, hint, and clue I’ve found since, as well as history, all lead me to believe that his entry in the death register is wrong and his death certificate is correct. It is good to keep looking, even after you have “the answer.”

I found a man I was looking for in the census. He was living with his parents, which I didn’t expect, but the rest of the information was a very good match. So my search, at least for that census year, was over. Except, I found a man with the same name living with his wife and son. The information did not match particularly well with the man I was looking for. Who was the right person? Both of them. They were the same man. He was enumerated twice. One enumeration found him where he should not have been recorded but gave correct biographical information. The other recorded him at his actual home but was full of bent truths. Both were useful, but only one should have existed. It is good to keep looking, even after you have “the answer.”

 

 

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