Have you ever, during the course of your family history, found that you have been barking up the wrong tree? Put two and two together and made five? Some trees seem to have a habit of growing in random directions (sometimes aided and abetted by the researcher!) but, no matter which way your branches develop, you must ensure that you have documentary evidence to support your conclusions.
I was in my youth when I began my family history research, inheriting the gene from my maternal grandfather. With a rather interesting surname in my list of eight great-grandparents, I managed to go completely wrong in my early days and woofed loudly up a completely different tree to the actual line of my great-grandmother, Emma Grace Sillifant. Learning from mistakes is good (essential, in fact), particularly in the early years but needs to be avoided now, under any and all circumstances! Heir Hunting can be challenging on this front though because, of course, we don’t want to expend too much financially unless we have some hope of a return on our investment.
Sometimes I (indeed, we at FWL) just have to go on gut reaction and then prove it right or wrong. Thankfully, the knack gets better with age and experience! (and boy, do we have that in bucket loads!) …. Now, I mentioned this some while back and had two very positive responses …. anyone interested in joining our team at FWL? We need more hands on deck…. Please get in touch if you feel you have the skills, tenacity and terrier approach to research. Team FWL would love to hear from you!
