Genealogy-Geneology.net - Research Techniques

Serendipity Isn't Enough

by Betty Jo Stockton

You know what I mean — that piece of information that you’ve sought for years and then it falls into your lap when you least expect it. We've all had the experience of a lucky find -- meeting the exact person you need just when you need them or finding a clue that leads to a major breakthrough. Thomas Jefferson has a quote:

"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." --- Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826

Note if you want to find your ancestors quickly and easily then I recommend the
online investigation tool Net Detective for Ancestry & Background Searches.

Those lucky finds are wonderful, but unless you’ve done your homework — you may not recognize when they come. How many times have you gone back through your notes and found that piece of information you were looking for was already there, but you hadn’t realized the significance of it? On my trip to Ohio last summer, I found — through serendipity — a great grandfather whom I'd been looking for many years; he and his daughters had simply disappeared after the 1860 census. The Knox Co, Indiana record book he was listed in just happened to catch my eye as I was leaning on the shelf waiting for a friend. I had no reason to think he'd be there because the rest of the family was in Dearborn County, IN at the opposite corner of the state -- but there he was! Because I had thoroughly researched and documented the other members of the family, it was obvious that, yes, this was my Valentine STALDER. If I hadn’t tracked down all the other members of the family — with children, stepchildren and relatives by marriage — I might well have missed the connections, as his name was misspelled, dates were off a bit, and the cemetery records were garbled.

My mother who has been an avid gardener for almost all of her 87 years. One of her pet peeves is the visitor who leaves her home with arms full of vegetables, fruits and flowers saying, “Betty has the best luck with her garden!” They fully intend it as a compliment, but fail to consider the many hours of planting, weeding, spraying, and tending that went into that garden — in order to have that “luck.”

Our genealogy research needs that same sort of tending — so that our “luck” will have a place to lodge when it finds us.

[Written by Betty Jo Stockton for Treasure Chest News, the newsletter of the Central Florida Genealogical
Society, November, 1999. Permission is granted for use in any genealogical or family history newsletter, provided
this credit is attached]

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