The first four steps of the Genealogy Brick Wall Busting Process are:
- Step 1: Review Previous Research on Your Brick Wall Ancestor.
- Step 2: Take everything from Step 1 and rearrange it into a timeline.
- Step 3: Analyze everything as a whole that you looked at in detail in steps 1 & 2.
- Step 4: Use the materials created in Steps 1-3 to create a research plan!
Now we are ready to begin Step 5: Perform the Research and then Process that Research. Following this step will keep us moving forward on our project, chipping away at that brick wall instead of building it up again.
Watch This Episode, or Continue Reading Below
This post is part five of a multi-part series on how to bust through genealogy brick walls and discover the identity and life story of even your toughest, elusive ancestor. Here are the previous installments:
- Part 1 – Review Previous Research
- Part 1 – Case Study
- Part 2 – Make a Timeline
- Part 2 – Case Study
- Part 3 – Analyze Everything
- Part 3 – Case Study
- Part 4 – Make a Research Plan
- Part 4 – Case Study
Follow Your Research Plan
As you follow the research plan you created in Step 4, you need to completely PROCESS each source you look at, document you find, and record you save.
Yes, this means you might have to SLOW DOWN from your typical research speed.
So, what do I mean by PROCESS your research? Go through each step of the Brick Wall Busting process with that new evidence so you don’t make your brick wall taller and wider.
PROCESS Your Research
Step 1 for new evidence:
Carefully evaluate each new document or piece of evidence you find for facts and clues about your Brick Wall Ancestor.
Step 2 for new evidence:
Add all dates and events from the new evidence to the Brick Wall Ancestor’s timeline (the same timeline used in Step 2 of the Brick Wall Busting process).
Step 3 for new evidence:
Analyze and correlate the new clues and evidence against the clues and evidence you already had. Is the new evidence creating a more complete picture about your Brick Wall Ancestor, or leaving bigger gaps in the puzzle?
Step 4 for new evidence:
Add items to your research plan that this new evidence leads you to. (Yes, be disciplined about this and don’t just stop halfway through processing a new find to jump into the next search!)
Keep Chipping Away at the Bricks in Your Wall
Continue going through this cycle:
- complete the next item on the research plan
- evaluate the evidence that you find
- add to the timeline
- analyze and correlate with previously found evidence
- add new items to the research plan
- Keep going until you solve the mystery!
This completes the steps for the genealogy brick wall busting process!
What Questions Do You Have?
Now dear readers and viewers, I would like to know what questions you still have about any part of the Genealogy Brick Wall Busting steps.
Please leave your question in the comments below.
I’ll make an upcoming video to answer all of your questions. Until then, good luck with your genealogy brick wall project!
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See you next time,
Melissa
