Different types of Genealogical Puzzles
Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 12:10 am
We all have Brick Walls. I tend to think of that as having no further information to allow progress on a branch of your tree.
I tend to think of two other common problems a bit differently.
I have "Gordian Knots" where several branches of a family live in a small area, have kids born only a few years apart and are named the same.
You have lots of census and birth and marriage data but untangling one family from another is almost impossible.
In Australia these can be more easily "untangled" because of the vaste amount of information on the indexes. No need to go broke buying certificates. In the UK it can be very expensive to undo the knot.
The other puzzle I love is the "Jigsaw".
Somebody gives you a bunch of photographs (or recently for me, some very detailed wedding photographs) that mention "Uncle Joe and his wife Molly", "Cousin John and Betty - Woop Woop 1925" etc.
An Obituary might mention children, grandchildren, sons in law etc.
Some pages from a family bible are sent to you that mention dozens of people and their birth and death dates.
You have no idea who some of these people are, but are determined to find out where they fit, hence the "Jigsaw".
Does anybody else have a type of "puzzle" they think is a bit different than just a "brick wall"?
I tend to think of two other common problems a bit differently.
I have "Gordian Knots" where several branches of a family live in a small area, have kids born only a few years apart and are named the same.
You have lots of census and birth and marriage data but untangling one family from another is almost impossible.
In Australia these can be more easily "untangled" because of the vaste amount of information on the indexes. No need to go broke buying certificates. In the UK it can be very expensive to undo the knot.
The other puzzle I love is the "Jigsaw".
Somebody gives you a bunch of photographs (or recently for me, some very detailed wedding photographs) that mention "Uncle Joe and his wife Molly", "Cousin John and Betty - Woop Woop 1925" etc.
An Obituary might mention children, grandchildren, sons in law etc.
Some pages from a family bible are sent to you that mention dozens of people and their birth and death dates.
You have no idea who some of these people are, but are determined to find out where they fit, hence the "Jigsaw".
Does anybody else have a type of "puzzle" they think is a bit different than just a "brick wall"?
