Now that I have your attention! What I'm going to share with you is not an original idea of mine, although I did think of it many years ago and guess others had the same light bulb go off over their head too! But, my approach is a tad different from others due to my police computer background. In computers (back in the dark ages), we had to make flowcharts of how we expected the computer to process the input data we were feeding it, what to do with that data, what conditions to test for and then finish up at the now famous 999 which worried everyone during the end of 1999! I was taught from the very first day ... use LOGIC! As an employee of two different police departments, working with stolen cars and the detective lab in addition to other duties, I learned to look for information in non-obvious places. Every little clue was recorded, nothing was too small to be ignored. Then, in the computer field, logic played a vital roll. When I embarked into genealogy (now as a full time career), I tried to remember some of the things I had learned before. I'm sure you've thought of one of these already, maybe the second technique will be new to you. THE CLOCK WATCHERS: I'm sure everyone knows what a clock watcher is ... ah, I remember the years. Is it lunch time? It is time to go home? Is it time to get the children up for school or home from school? We're all terribly and often painfully aware of time and please note, the older you get, the faster it goes! I have always been intrigued with knowing as much about my ancestors as I could. On one of my daughter's ggg (several times over), I realized that I knew what he did almost every day of his life. I had discovered so many interesting things about him by just reading the documents a little closer. So this encouraged me to "clock watch" or what is better called - make a time line. Now, all the time lines I have seen are nice and they usually are in 10 year segments, or if you feel so motivated, can be purchased from various companies. This is really great, but I did it the hard way (and still do!), I go year by year. I simply start at my earliest reference to the individual, make the left hand column the year, the middle column the who and the 3rd column the event. If I have two gentlemen with the same name (or close enough) and I'm not sure I'm tracking the correct one - by running a time line, I might just discover which one to eliminate.. I have also used this when I wanted to find out when a family split up and moved. As an example, I have 3 main Gorin lines - John, Henry and Gladin. They traveled so much together that I made a column for all 3 of them and was easily able to see when they parted company. By doing it on a year by year basis, it gives me a more accurate picture than a 10-year time frame. A lot can happen in 10 years! Below is shown a simple time line the way I do it: (leaving many years out) 1763 John Gorin Born Fairfax Co VA 1791 John Gorin Tax rolls Fayette Co KY 1791 John Gorham Tax rolls Fayette Co KY 1798 John Gorin Moves to Barren Co KY 1799 John Gorham Leaves will in Versailles, IN Oops .... he went that-away ... goodbye John Gorham! I might run it a few more years to be sure he didn't just make a fast dash up there for a friend and become ill, but it appears now that Mr. Gorham has rolled off the pages of our family tree! THE BACK FENCE SNOOP! I don't know if you grew up in the same era as I (and I'm not telling what era that is!), or in a small town as I did. But the favorite gossip spot was over the back yard fence, normally as the neighbor ladies hung out their laundry. These dear ladies didn't miss a beat; they knew who was dating who, what time the neighbors got home, who had come "a callin" .... it was the older generation's version of the internet and chat lines! So, we come to the current time. A simple question for you. Have you ever had a problem of finding your ancestor's name in the index except as a reference to someone else? No flowery biography in a vanity or mug book, no newspaper column extolling the virtues of your great grandfather upon his death; no funeral home records, the stone at the cemetery stone has been stolen? Or the census taker dropped cigar ashes over his name in the census or that was the page that was out of focus or black? I think we all have relatives like that. We can pick up their name but they weren't doing anything on their own - they seemed to have just been passing by. Why not try something? Since you can't find out much about him/her except in other references, let's find out something about his friends and neighbors. In the process, we might find out some interesting things about our ancestor. Let's take a look at Kermit P. Kiddlehopper. Where to begin? Make an index of people's names associated with good old Kermit over the years. Example: We're trying to find where our Kermit came from; his mother's maiden name and any other goodie we can find! Friend/Neighbor? Date Event Joe Jumpinghorse 5 Mar 1840 Kermit a witnesses a deed in Garrard Co. Patrick Perkingcup 7 July 1841 Kermit a power of attorney in Loudon Co VA. Susan Anyperson 10 Jan 1845 Kermit the next best friend in lawsuit, Garrard Co. Joe Jumpinghorse family 1850 census 5 "houses" away from Kermit, born VA Charles Chewinggum 1850 census 10 houses away from Kermit, born TN Peter Potatohead 17 May 1851 Writes will, names property line as Kermit. Joe Jumpinghorse 6 Jan 1860 Kermit marries his daughter Jasmine. Etc. etc. After building this name index for a while, certain names possibly will reoccur. In the brief example above, we see Joe Jumpinghorse was from VA. Patrick Perkingcup was from Loudon Co VA and hires Kermit to be his power of attorney to transact some business there. Why? Possibly a settlement of an estate or something? Later he marries Jasmine Jumpinghorse, daughter of James Jumpinghorse. Wonder if the Jumpinghorses were from Loudon Co too? Kermit was born VA .... the plot thickens. Kermit's middle initial is P. and the . Hmmm. Patrick Perkingcup is from Loudon Co ... wonder if Kermit's mother was a Perkingcup. Think I'll look at Loudon Co marriages. Yes, Preston Perkingcup married Elizabeth Everybody there. .... I think you get the picture. Sometimes it is the most illusive of clues that can help us reach a determination. You will have to prove it of course, but this is a good start. It is recommended that when copying a census record, you also keep the names of the families 10 houses above and below your name. When men's children reached marrying age, they often divided up their acreage between their married children. Relatives often settled close to each other, went to the same church, witnessed each other's deeds and wills. I can't guarantee that you'll find all your questions answered this way, but this is one more approach at finding a little clue. If nothing else, you will know more about whom your family knew - their friends and neighbors. You can start eliminating those whose name only appears once or twice and can eliminate individuals with the same name as your ancestor but who was in the wrong place at the right time! Next week we'll return to the National Register sites. (c) Copyright 9 August 2001, Sandra K. Gorin, All Rights Reserved. sgorin@glasgow-ky.com Colonel Sandi Gorin, 205 Clements, Glasgow, KY 42141 (270) 651-9114 Member: Glasgow-Barren Co Chamber of Commerce. Publishing: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/ Barren Co web page: http://www.rootsweb.com/~kybarren/ Barren Co. Board: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/board/rw/localities.northam.usa.states.ken tucky.counties.barren/ KY Biographies: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/board/rw/localities.northam.usa.states.ken tucky.bios/ KYResearch Tips: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/board/rw/localities.northam.usa.states.ken tucky.tips/ Archives of SCKY: http://www.public.asu.edu/~moore/sck.html