Have you ever hit a dead end or brick wall in your tree? On my direct lines I have at least 5 dead ends. Some of the dead ends start in the 3rd generation of my tree while others are a lot further back. What I typically do is I put the lines on the back burner and jump to another branch of my tree, or I give my tree a break and help friends or cousins with their trees. This helps in taking my mind off that problem.
Sometimes, it is years before I look at the brick walls again, often because I came across new information. So, you never know when you will get the “ah hah” moment, but when you do, it could help you to break through your brick wall or least help you make sense of the family connections.
In this case, the clues were right in my house, smack dab in my mom’s old toy chest.
In this post, I will tell you a few of the simple clues that aided me in discovering more about my direct lines and maybe help you find similar clues to help you with yours.
Let’s take a look at the old toy chest.
Old Toy Chest:
How many of my readers acquired items from their parents due to death, moving or marriage? I acquired my mom’s old toy chest because my mom passed away and my dad was moving out of the family home that they lived in for over 35 years. Who knows why I took the old toy chest home, maybe it was because none of my older siblings wanted or knew about it? Perhaps I felt there it was too important to our past to go to waste.
You have to understand, I was not the super sleuth Nancy Dru Genealogist that I am today, and this happened in 1996.
Before my mom passed away, we gave my parents a 40th wedding anniversary party. In order to do that, we had to go through photos from their wedding, ask who was part of the wedding party and find out the colors of the dresses, as everything was in black and white. We recreated those colors for their anniversary, and in the process, I learned about my family ancestry. My mom even filled out a rudimentary tree on blue note paper for me, which I still have. Maybe this was why I took the toy chest home.
In 2009, I started my tree and that is when I really went through the old toy chest and examined everything in the box. I found old photos, my grandfather’s budget book, hearing aids (they are still in the toy box), baby shoes, old cards, old toys, my grandfather’s metal social security card, and my 3 simple clues.
Can you guess the 3 clues that I used to research my parent’s lines?
My 3 items that I used from the old toy chest were what I consider ordinary items that your ancestors might have kept.
- Address Books
- Baby Books
- Funeral Books
Address, Baby and Funeral Books
What are in these books?
Each of the books gives you information about people that were in your ancestor’s lives. Sometimes, you might not recognize the significance of how they are related as maybe they are no longer living and, therefore, in my case I never heard my mother or grandmothers talk about them.
In the baby books, each of my grandmas had parties recorded, who attended and what they gave. They also gave their titles like “Aunt”. So, from those references, I was able to use the names and sometimes verify in the address books and then was able to apply them for my new search strategy on Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org.
The funeral books are more recent as they are my grandparents’, but it still helps to confirm names and, in this case, verify addresses.
Besides getting helpful clues for my genealogy research, the baby books were so special to me for a peek into the past as one had the receipt of the cost for my dad’s birth in 1932 in Chicago. Would you believe it only cost $52.35 for 6 days in the hospital? In my mom’s baby book, it gave health information like she had her tonsils out at the age of 21 months and 7 days old!
Because I had that baby book though, I was also able to locate the brother of my grandfather’s uncle, unlocking his entire branch of the family for further sleuthing, as well as countless others.
Similarly, with the address books, I was able to confirm my grandmother’s maiden name, which was in the address book because of her father being listed twice, each with different spellings. And those two different spellings connected to the death records we had on hand for my grandmother’s uncle. Without that, given how they were immigrants and the names had been badly botched and altered over the years, I might never have found them.
Even today, these simple clues are my go-to when I’m working on my direct line because, when I find someone who might belong there, I’m always checking to see if they appear in these books.
Simple Clues to Use in Your Research
These are just a few of the simple clues that I have on hand, and I use them a lot when working on the immediate family. Maybe you will find other types of clues that will give you the “Ah Hah” moment that will help you break through your own brick walls. In my case, if I didn’t take the toy chest, would my siblings have taken it and if not, would my dad have set it on the curb for the trash pickup? These simple books are not only a peek into the past, but valuable information as the family genealogist.
I would love to know what your simple genealogy resources that you used to break through a brick wall on your genealogy tree. Please click this link: Contact NancyDru, to email me a private message or if you would like to post a comment just scroll down a little further on this page.
Itís difficult to find well-informed people about this topic, however, you sound like you know what youíre talking about! Thanks