As discussed in last week's post, the online databases and indexes, as helpful as they are, can be fraught with errors which would lead you to believe a record doesn't exist The trick is trying as much as you can to fool the systems into showing you every possibility. Some common issues for search failures can be: The name is recorded with a different spelling Misleading or incomplete databases Looking in the wrong jurisdiction Frequent letter substitutions Typo - example Joesph not Joseph First, Middle, and Last name reversed or jumbled Name sounds - example Auto for Otto (It really happened!) Nicknames - example Polly = Mary (there are online…

Over the last 15 years we've seen huge changes in the way we conduct genealogy research.  I remember jumping on the bus in suburban Detroit, taking the ride down Woodward Ave to the massive Detroit Public Library to go through the thousand of documents, books, records they had stored at the historical building itself.  At that time, the idea of sitting at home and doing any genealogy research in your family room on the home computer was unthinkable.  Even all off ur pedigrees and family group records were on paper and carried everything in a heavy brief case to the library or where ever I went to do any type…