In your efforts to document your ancestors as best as you can, have you made an effort to learn as much as possible about all of your ancestors siblings? Because they left no descendants, sometimes childless children of our ancestors get neglected. Don't make that mistake. Ignoring them means you lose potential clues on all your relatives and documenting these individuals helps to ensure that they are not forgotten.
Sometimes childless adults are good family historians. They may be more connected to siblings & cousins. We may be reaping the fruit of their work without knowing it. Such individuals keep cousins in touch regarding others in the extended family.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. And sometimes childless adults are truly fascinating people who lived interesting lives well worth learning about. Sometimes, too, researching them can lead to important clues about other family members who come up missing. One of my great-great-uncles (with a number of children) seemed to disappear at about 75 yrs old. Thought he probably died. But in researching his unmarried (no known progeny) son, I eventually found out that the dad had decided to move to Canada to preach, and the unmarried son went with him to take care. found the dad by following the childless son.
ReplyDeleteBecause I have no children, I began my Zingery and Humphries family research so that I could leave something for my genetic line ... no downline but an upline! Also, I make a point of recording those who may otherwise be forgotten because that could be me. I have often found out family info by following the single children who might, for example, be caring for an older mother who remarried and I would not have known had I not found her in her new name listed as a mother in the single child's census record. Searching just for her had proven fruitless until then.
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