{"id":4169,"date":"2017-02-15T17:45:40","date_gmt":"2017-02-15T17:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/?p=4169"},"modified":"2017-02-15T16:44:18","modified_gmt":"2017-02-15T16:44:18","slug":"are-there-really-genealogy-brick-walls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/?p=4169","title":{"rendered":"Are There Really Genealogy Brick Walls?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-4172 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/IMG_20170215_104104-300x212.jpg\" alt=\"img_20170215_104104\" width=\"300\" height=\"212\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/IMG_20170215_104104-300x212.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/IMG_20170215_104104-768x544.jpg 768w, https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/IMG_20170215_104104-1024x725.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>&#8220;I have a brick wall. In fact, I have many brick walls.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s no such thing as brick walls. They are all in your head.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It does not matter whether you think genealogical brick walls exist or whether you think they don&#8217;t. It doesn&#8217;t. What matters is how you approach your research when you think you are at one or when you think &#8220;if I believed in them, this would be one, but I don&#8217;t so it&#8217;s not.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The problem is that research difficulties are not always solved by the exact same approach. Problems are contextual. What worked with one family may not work with another. That&#8217;s often why people feel they have reached an impasse in their research: they have a type of problem they have never encountered. They are experiencing a stumbling block they&#8217;ve never experienced before. If we continue the brick wall metaphor, then it&#8217;s possible that the best solution is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>scaling the wall with a ladder<\/li>\n<li>digging under the wall<\/li>\n<li>flying\u00a0over the wall<\/li>\n<li>breaking a hole in the wall<\/li>\n<li>realizing the wall is just made of paper and punching through it<\/li>\n<li>realizing the wall is simply a really big spot on your glasses<\/li>\n<li>going to the end of the wall and walking around<\/li>\n<li>etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Different solutions for different problems.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s true even if one does not believe in brick walls.<\/p>\n<p>What matters is that you realize a new approach may be necessary. Your metaphor for this stage of the research can be &#8220;I&#8217;m stuck in the ditch and spinning my wheels.&#8221; And if that&#8217;s your metaphor someone is bound to say &#8220;That doesn&#8217;t really work because genealogy is not like driving a car at all. You really need to get a new metaphor.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>No you don&#8217;t. Your metaphor tells you that there&#8217;s a time when you need to stop spinning your wheels and do something else.That&#8217;s good. The brick wall metaphor tells you that you&#8217;ve got something blocking your path that you need to work around. Telling yourself that you are clueless about what to do next is another appropriate response.<\/p>\n<p>What matters is realizing that something else needs to be done and a new approach is necessary.<\/p>\n<p>Generally speaking, that means learning about:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>all contemporary records that were kept at all political levels&#8211;how they were recorded, who was included, how they were maintained, how they are accessed, how to interpret them, etc.<\/li>\n<li>all contemporary private records (including church records)&#8211;how they were recorded, who was included, how they were maintained, how they are accessed, how they are interpreted, etc.<\/li>\n<li>all contemporary historical events that logically and directly (or indirectly) impacted your person of interest<\/li>\n<li>the &#8220;neighborhood&#8221; in which your person of interest lived&#8211;his neighbors, the physical nature of his neighborhood, his social neighborhood (kinfolk, etc.), his culture, and so on<\/li>\n<li>research methods appropriate to the time period and location<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It also means:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>stating, analyzing, and questioning all assumptions about the ancestor<\/li>\n<li>reviewing old conclusions and document transcriptions for thoroughness, accuracy, and completeness<\/li>\n<li>questioning statements about the ancestor made by other researchers<\/li>\n<li>being willing to admit you were wrong<\/li>\n<li>being willing to admit there may be something you need to learn<\/li>\n<li>realizing that a cookie cutter approach may not work<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The metaphor does not really matter.<\/p>\n<p>What does matter is how you approach your research when you&#8217;ve reached that metaphor.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I have a brick wall. In fact, I have many brick walls.&#8221; &#8220;There&#8217;s no such thing as brick walls. They are all in your head.&#8221; It does not matter whether you think genealogical brick walls exist or whether you think they don&#8217;t. It doesn&#8217;t. What matters is how you approach your research when you think [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}