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for the Federation of Genealogical Societies’ FORUM magazine. Drew is
the author of the book Social Networking for Genealogists, published in
2009 by Genealogical Publishing Company. In 2013, he was selected to
serve as the first Chair of the Family History Information Standards
Organisation (FHISO). Since 2007, Drew has been the President of the
Florida Genealogical Society of Tampa. He is a Director of the Federation
of Genealogical Societies, Chair of the FGS Technology Committee, and a
past Secretary of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG).
George and Drew together produce The Genealogy GuysSM Podcast, the
longest running genealogical podcast, published online at
genealogyguys.com and enjoyed by thousands of listeners around the
world.
Advanced Genealogy Research
Techniques

George G. Morgan
Drew Smith

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The title of Accredited Genealogist (AG®) is a registered trademark of the International Commission
for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen).

Board for Certification of Genealogists is a registered trademark.

Certified of Genealogist (CGSM) and Certified of Genealogical Lecturer (CGLSM) are service marks
of the Board for Certification of Genealogists.

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 We dedicate this book with love and gratitude to all of our
genealogy friends, from whom we have learned and with
whom we have shared over the years. You make our journey
very special.
 Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction

CHAPTER 1 Examine the Brick Wall in Detail

Reexamine in Detail the Evidence You Have Already
Discovered
Focus on Details You May Have Missed or Overlooked the
First Time
Census
Birth Certificate/Index
Marriage License/Index
Death Certificate/Index
Obituary
Tombstone/Cemetery
Photograph
Now That You Have More Details…
Organize What You Have in a Genealogy Database Program
Names
Dates
Places
Create an Ancestor Timeline
Gather All of the Evidence You Have Collected
Organize Everything Sequentially
Reread Everything
Compile a Timeline
Incorporate Historical Newspaper Research
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
 Summary
Sources Used in This Chapter

CHAPTER 2 Use Brute Force

Indexes
Transcriptions
Extracts
Abstracts
OCR in Detail
Sources of Secondary Information
Family Histories, Online Family Trees, and Personal Web
Pages
Application Forms to Societies and Other Organizations
The “Reasonably Exhaustive Search”
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Summary
Sources Used in This Chapter

CHAPTER 3 Go Around the Wall

The Broader Technique (and What to Call It)
Spouses
Parents and Children
Other Relatives
Beyond the “F”
Another Important Use of the FAN Club Technique
Other Names
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4
Summary
Sources Used in This Chapter
CHAPTER 4 Talk to a Friend
Why Share a Brick Wall Problem?
With Whom Should You Share the Problem?
How to Share a Brick Wall Problem
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Summary

CHAPTER 5 Use Crowdsourcing

Genealogy Societies
Online Forums—An Overview
Electronic Mailing Lists
Electronic Message Boards
Facebook Groups, Google+ Communities, and
GenealogyWise
Finding the Most Relevant Online Forum
The Etiquette of Online Forums
Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts
Blogs
Wikis
Podcasts
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4
Summary

CHAPTER 6 Apply Technological Solutions

DNA Testing: A Very Brief History
Types of DNA Testing
mtDNA Testing
Y-DNA Testing
Autosomal DNA Testing
 Deep Ancestry
Mutations
Mitochondrial Eve
Y-chromosomal Adam
Haplogroups and SNPs
Ethnic Mixtures
Companies That Perform DNA Testing
Specialized Genealogical Software
GenSmarts
Clooz
Evidentia
Summary

CHAPTER 7 Hire a Demolition Expert

What Can a Professional Researcher Do for Me?
Professional Genealogist
Accredited Genealogist
Certified Genealogist
Other Organizations Representing Professional
Genealogists
Geographic Specialization
Specialty Areas
Contracting with a Professional Researcher
If and When Things Go Wrong
Summary

CHAPTER 8 Rest Up and Attack the Brick Wall Another Time

Learn
Books
Articles
Blogs
Wikis
Recorded Audio and Video Programs
Live Webinars
 Face-to-Face Presentations
Practice
Monitor
Summary

CHAPTER 9 Put the Techniques to Work

Review the Evidence
Develop a Research Strategy
Determine the Questions You Want to Answer
Identify All Potential Resources
Obtain Exact Copies of the Original Records
Analyze Evidence and Develop Hypotheses
Keep a Research Log
A Paper Research Log
Use a Spreadsheet
A Blog as Research Log
Use Your Genealogy Database Program
Software Utility Programs
The Case of Mary Ann Reilly Smith
Some Final Remarks

Index
 Acknowledgments
The creation of any book is always a collaborative effort that involves the
knowledge, talents, and skills of many individuals. We would like to
mention a few of the people who have helped us realize our vision for this
book.
We want to extend our sincere thanks to members of the McGraw-Hill
Education team. We are grateful to Roger Stewart, Editorial Director at
McGraw-Hill Education, for his strong commitment and support for this
book. We’d like to thank Amanda Russell, our Editorial Coordinator, for her
excellent guidance and assistance throughout our production of each part of
the book. A big thank you also goes to Megg Morin, editor of George’s How
to Do Everything: Genealogy books, who facilitated the beginning of this
book’s production. The McGraw-Hill Education team members are always
highly professional, and we’re very appreciative of the friendships we have
formed with all the members of the team.
George would also like to thank the many readers of How to Do
Everything: Genealogy who have asked, “When is the next book coming
out?” and “How do I get past this brick wall?” The authors have long
known that a more advanced book was needed, and the readers have
provided the impetus to produce this volume.
We’d also like to thank our genealogy friends, colleagues, and podcast
listeners. They have shared their experiences, proposed research strategies
and solutions to difficult problems, and offered us their friendship and
support. We all learn from one another, and we enjoy passing the
knowledge forward.
 Introduction
When the Going Gets Tough…
The quest for information about our ancestors and their families can be
exciting and fulfilling. The thrill of the chase provides countless
opportunities to learn about the places they lived, the historical period in
which they lived, the events that influenced them or in which they
participated, and the other people in their lives. It is gratifying to place these
people into context and to come to really know and understand them.
The hobby of genealogy is different from most other hobbies in that it
often starts out very easy and then gets more difficult the more you work
with it. Unless you’re dealing with a comparatively recent adoption
situation or a parent or grandparent who was reluctant to talk about their
families, you can often begin your research and make quick progress in
filling out the names of your parents, grandparents, and possibly even your
great-grandparents. However, once you get past the information that the
family already knows, and have exhausted information found in the
documents you find in your own home or in the possession of close
relatives, you will discover that you have to learn about how to locate and
use records of genealogical interest, such as obituaries, census records, and
vital records. You may again make significant progress and work back in
time at least into the nineteenth century, although your success may be
frustrated by dealing with ancestors who came from other countries and
whose points of origin may be unknown. Your work may be stymied by
places where the records aren’t easily accessible or that are in a language
that you don’t speak.
At each generation, you’re doubling the number of trails to follow, and
some are going to be much easier than others. A few of these trails may
connect to published genealogies that already provide excellent reference
sources that lead to strong documentation. Most, however, are going to be
untraveled territory. Sooner or later, you’re going to be following that path
through the dark forest of time, and come upon the dreaded brick wall. Your
basic knowledge of genealogical research may prove insufficient to get past
that wall, and you may become frustrated and discouraged.
This book is intended to help.

…the Tough Get Going

George’s previous book, How to Do Everything: Genealogy, is written with
the beginning genealogist in mind. It provides a basic set of research skills
and identifies many of the common types of records available to
researchers.
This book is not for beginners, but for those who have already mastered
the level of content found in How to Do Everything: Genealogy, and who
have now run up against brick walls and need some additional skills to
make further progress. This means that we will assume that you already
know about the various genealogical record types and where to find them,
and that you already know the essential processes involved in searching for
information both online and offline. We also presume that you have
experience researching online using both Internet search engines and
genealogy database sites, and that you already know the standard ways of
entering, manipulating, and reporting genealogical information, especially
using genealogy software.
So this book is going to take you to the next level by presenting you with
a set of techniques that can help you make progress when the beginning
methods aren’t enough. It will also help you better comprehend and
understand the content of some of the common genealogical evidence that
you thought you knew.

The Brick Wall Metaphor (and Why It Matters)

The best way to learn something new is to relate it to something that you
already understand or can easily visualize. This is why good educators,
whether standing up in front of a classroom, leading a webinar, or writing a
textbook, try to think about where their students are in the learning process
and what they already are likely to know. We learn this way because our
brains can quickly make new connections when they are linked to existing
knowledge.
 When we decided to write this type of book, we realized that our readers
would need an easy way to remember these new techniques, a way to relate
them to something that they could easily imagine. And if the problem faced
by a genealogist is called a “brick wall,” then why not use the mental image
of a brick wall as a way to explain how each of these research techniques
works? Analogies are great “connectors” and we’ll use them to help you
extend your knowledge.
So now, in your mind’s eye, imagine yourself standing in front of a
dense forest. There is one entrance into the forest that is the beginning of a
path, and your passage along that path is your genealogical research
journey. The beginning of the path is analogous to yourself, and the path is
easy to walk along because you already know an awful lot about yourself
(whether from personal memory, the memories of others, or from
documents you possess). What happens, however, when the path forks?
You can take the left fork (your father’s side of the family), or the right
fork (your mother’s side). Again, unless you have already reached an
adoption situation or you have a secretive or absent parent, either fork
provides a distinct path that you can choose to move along. No matter
which path at the fork you take, you can always return to the fork later and
try the other path, too. As long as there are relatives alive to provide
dependable information or documents to be found using basic genealogical
research techniques, you can make good time as you walk along the path
and make choices at each fork (as you move from generation to generation).
What happens when the path reaches a brick wall? It may be a high wall,
so high that you can’t see over it, and it stretches across the entire path so
that you can’t simply walk around it (at least not that you can see). Your
progress along the research path has stopped. What choices do you have to
help you make further progress? That depends a great deal on the approach
you take from there.

Eight Ideas for Getting Past the Brick Wall

There are numerous approaches you can take, depending on what you want
to learn and the place and time in which your ancestor lived.

You can get up very close to the wall and examine the entire wall in
detail, checking to see if there are any weaknesses you can push