Sideways

Some times to go back another generation we have to go sideways. That means looking at siblings.
If you are lucky enough to know who all of your ancestors' siblings are and where they lived in relationship to where your ancestor lived, then it is easy.In my case, I needed to link my g-g-g-g-g-g-great-grandfather to his father. I know both of there names and I had his brothers names but could not find a document to prove the connection, father to son. I found land records that show the father and all of the sons and brothers were a the land office on the same day. And I could deduct that they knew each other and were probably related as the land grants were in numerical order. But that was NOT proof that they were related.

So I started looking at records of the brothers of my ancestor. I was fortunate enough to find a court record that showed that my ancestor's older brother was appointed executor of his fathers estate. And in that record, there were all of the children listed by name, including g-g-g-g-g-g-great grandfather. So don't discount going sideways every once in a while.

Another reason to go sideways is just for fun. You get a better picture of what the family was like by looking at it from many views. And for fun take a look at what other genealogists are doing. I stumbled upon the blog called, "The Diary of a Mad Genealogist" by Jen. and found myself wanting to connect with even more fellow researchers.  Have fun even if it takes you in a new direction!