Do you keep track of those people who are "close" to being your ancestor, but someone you've eliminated as being your actual ancestor? Maybe it's someone whose name is slightly different, whose age is slightly off, or who has one detail about their life that doesn't fit?
Keep a file or record of those "close but not quite" people. It's always possible that if one detail about your ancestor is off, one of those "close but not quite" people could actually be your person of interest.
I also need to write up *why* I eliminated them from being my ancestors. I have caught myself duplicating my efforts without that information.
ReplyDeleteFor years I tried to track a man whom I couldn't identify as family, yet he was buried in our family cemetery. I finally identified his parents and his twin brother. He lived next to my ancestor. I still can't identify his wife's maiden name, so I haven't ruled it out entirely. So, I tracked down other members of his family on ancestry and shared with them where he is buried. Still no word on the maiden name of his wife.
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