Hi All: Please pardon the intrusion, but, I was thinking that I wish there was a forum to share "genealogy research tips" that [you] wish you had known when you first started research. So, my Christmas gift to you all is to share the one thing that I wish I would have known twenty-odd years ago when I started research. Namely, when you copy down information from a census record, you should copy at least 6-8 families on either side of your ancestor. I read about this "tip" about three years ago. Now I always copy at least 8 families on either side because when you find more "surnames" in your family and go back and look at the census records, you sometimes find that they lived close to one another, sometimes next door. It is not unusual to find the "in-laws", parents or siblings close by. I wish that I had started that habit twenty years ago. Now, I have resorted to going back and looking at the same census records again to gain that info. So, does anyone want to share their most "invaluable" tip regarding genealogy? Thanks and Happy Holidays.