The Year Ahead – May 24

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

May 24 – Research “sideways” by looking for collateral relatives; for example, an ancestor’s brothers.

I am a firm believer of looking for and documenting collateral relatives. I have many examples where this open up new research avenues. For example, I was having difficulties locating my great grandparent’s marriage record. They were married before marriage records were required to be recorded in my state. Thus, I knew it might never have been one. I found a sibling’s marriage record of my great grandmother and it listed her parents. At least, I assumed her sibling and she had the same parents. It was a great find. Then I turned to my great grandfather and he had only one sibling and I found her marriage record and thus I had his parents’ name. This allowed me to find census records, with my great grandparents as children, living with their parents. It wasn’t until I found those marriage records, that I could be certain it was the same family, and not a family with similar names. I had found their siblings names listed in their obituaries; however, their parents’ names were not given.

I also found this same great grandfather living with his sister and her husband and her in-laws in 1900. I thought this was very strange. I knew it was the correct family, because of his sister’s marriage record listed her husband and her in-laws. I found out later, the reason was because my great grandfather’s mother had passed in 1899.

So don’t limit yourself to just your direct ancestors, at the minimum record all your direct ancestors’ children’s names. I find the more I collect, the easier it is to find more information and people because I have a lot of other facts to compare and evaluate against.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!