Revisit Your Documents - They Might Hold the Key
A Mission: Genealogy Community Tip: revisit your documents from time to time. You will be surprised at what a fresh pair of eyes (even your own!) can uncover.
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Family History Tip: Revisit Your Documents
One of the most valuable pieces of advice I can offer, regardless of how long you've been researching, is to revisit your documents from time to time. You will be surprised at what a fresh pair of eyes (even your own!) can uncover. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of having more experience or a new perspective. Other times, it’s simply that something which once seemed insignificant now stands out as a vital clue.
An Important Witness
Even after decades of research, I still occasionally find missed or misinterpreted details in documents I thought I’d thoroughly examined. For example, my 2x great-grandparents’ marriage certificate had a witness whose name meant nothing to me at the time. I filed it away and moved on. Nearly 30 years later, I looked at it again and instantly recognised the witness as a great-uncle. That single detail opened up a new line of research, and eventually led me to a son of my 2x great grandparents, who I had been trying to find for years, but who was living in another area with relatives.
My Missing 2x Great Grandfather
Another frustrating mystery was the disappearance of my 2x great-grandfather, Joseph Henry Jones, who had been living in Hobart, Tasmania. Over the years, I’d collected various records and clippings, but with a common name like Joseph Henry Jones, it was hard to know what was relevant. One item I’d set aside years earlier was a newspaper article about a mining accident in the high country of Victoria for Thomas James Jones. At the time, I dismissed it. It was from a different state and a slightly different name, so I couldn’t see the connection.
Back then, I was searching for Thomas James Jones based on birth records, as well as trying to find out what had happened to his father, Joseph Henry Jones. Names like James, Jim, Joseph, and Joe Jones are frustratingly common, and I struggled to connect the dots. As a new researcher, I didn't dig deeply enough into name variants or consider how flexible names could be in records.
Eventually, many years later, I ordered that inquest article from the archives. The man who had died was Thomas James Jones. After further research, I discovered that my 2x great-grandfather's son was baptised as James Thomas Jones, and not Thomas James Jones, as was on his birth certificate. Now, the confusing pieces started to form a picture. A witness to the inquest was Joseph Henry Jones, his father, who was at the scene of the accident. Further research confirmed that my great-grandfather had indeed moved to the area of the mining accident. I had finally found my missing 2x great-grandfather!
My Great Grandmother, the Midwife
Another unexpected discovery came when reviewing vital records. I noticed that my 2x great-grandmother’s name appeared as the midwife on several birth certificates, which were all listed on a single page, and each one was attended by her. Until then, I hadn’t realised she played this important role in her community. With this clue in hand, I checked further into the newspapers and found mentions of her attending births and even giving evidence at inquests after infant deaths. These small discoveries allowed me to build a fuller, richer picture of her life.
Each of these breakthroughs came not from finding new documents, but from re-examining those documents that I already had but had not looked at for many years.
So, if you’re stuck, don’t just search for new records, go back to the ones you have already collected, perhaps many years ago. Look again. Read slowly. Reconsider names, places, occupations, and witnesses. Sometimes, the answers are right in front of you, just waiting for you to see them with fresh eyes.
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Second harvest always yields something.
As one of my colleagues says “research means re-search. Go back and look at that document again!”