Hi, Reader,

I bet you've done this.

You've pulled the census for that ancestor more times than you can count. Same searches, same names, same dead end. Nothing that moves you forward.

After years of searching, I finally took down a large section of a genealogy brick wall!

Darwin Talbott left Virginia in 1848 and went "west". That's it. Family clues suggested I should start the search in Kentucky.

For years I could not find him anywhere in Kentucky or elsewhere. Every name search came up empty. I started to wonder if I would ever track him down.

It turns out Darwin was in Kentucky. He was recorded so poorly that no name search would ever have found him.

What finally found him were two techniques I combined together. One built around a neighbor recorded right next to him in a completely different kind of record. The other meant dropping his surname from the search entirely.

I wrote up the full case, including the actual records, in this post:

→ Research the Neighbors: 2 Techniques That Broke My Genealogy Brick Wall​

If you have a brick wall that has outlasted every name search you can think of, this is worth ten minutes of your time.

Recently, I sat down with Suzanne Wells of the eBay the Right Way podcast for an episode that's a little different from what I usually cover.

→ Listen to the episode​

We talked about old photographs, including cabinet cards, and how much history is packed into those small, stiff prints most people don't think twice about.

Ebay is a resource genealogists often overlook. It isn't just for collectibles. It's a real place to find family history ephemera, old postcards, photographs, documents, and the kind of small artifacts that never made it into an archive. If you've never searched it with your research in mind, it might be worth a look.

Before I go, I want to say thank you.

Next month I'll be walking the Susan G. Komen 3-Day in Boston, 60 miles over three days, in memory of my mom. If you donated, sent me an encouraging word, or just told me you're rooting for me, thank you! All of your support has meant a great deal as I've been training for this.

Happy Ancestor Hunting,

Lisa