Clues, Clues, & Clues!
In my 35 years of research, I continue to be surprised about revisiting a document, photo, or some piece of evidence multiple times and finding clues to my ancestors, despite having looked at the document multiple times previously! I don't know why I'm surprised each time, but it is probably in part, the excitement of finding something new or getting closer to solving an unknown about a relative.
I've worked in education for about 27 years, and since 1992, I have had a copy of a land document where my great grandfather's brother bought land from his mother in Cherokee County, Texas. During my years working in education, I would take that document out on every school vacation, comb through it, look at the names, do some searching and then unfortunately, not find anything and put it away until my next vacation. The one recurring clue in the document was my great grandfather's brother and his middle name...Greenlee.
Having done lots of genealogy research, I was confident that this was a surname used as a middle name, however, I could not find anything. Then, several years ago, for whatever reason, I did my usual searching and ended up finding a pension record AND then I also pulled my sister into a conversation and she began doing some digging one night and then BOOM, we made a connection with GREENLEE, SELMAN, and got a lot of additional information on my great grandfather's family! I'm glad that I consistently returned to that clue and kept trying to find information.
I later had another clue based find, which has me searching again. A few years ago, before my aunt passed away, I went to visit her in Louisiana. While I was there, my cousin (her daughter) and I went to her house and while there, I got some pictures that my aunt had tucked away (they were copies of originals) which had previously not been seen by anyone I immediately knew. The pictures were amazing copies of old photos of my great-great grandparents over the years AND a previously not viewed picture of my third great grandmother, Emeranda Russell Harper! I have had the picture for a few years and have looked at it numerous times, in addition to searching for "Maranda" Russell, who many people have dated as deceased from 1880 due to not finding her after that time. At the bottom of the picture is written, "Jacks grandmother Hopper (phonetic spelling)", and the picture also had the name of the photographer (Stone) and the city where it was located, Caldwell Texas. Despite having had the picture for several years, I had never pursued some of the clues that were right in front of me, however, I recently decided to do a search for the photographer and sure enough, I was able to date the picture as having been taken between 1892 and 1896, which is the period of time that he was doing photography in Caldwell, Texas! So, sure enough, I was able to confirm that my 3rd great grandmother was alive through the time period of 1892-1896. I've still not determined the exact date she died, however, I know that the "generic, we couldn't find her past 1880" is not close as she would have been alive at least another 12-16 years...and maybe she was even alive in 1900 for that census! Again, revisiting clues and ideas from that photo multiple times has helped me get closer to solving when she was still alive/died.
Searching for clues is a lot like rereading a favorite book. Every time you reread, you find something new or take something new away from the story. That is exactly what it is like when you reread a document, or look at a picture again to try and find a clue or stimulate new or a different way of thinking. Had I not revisited that land document I had on every school vacation for over 20 years, I may not have "cracked the case" of where Greenlee came from!
My recommendations about clues, or potential clues and chasing them down are the following:
Be persistent, making notes to periodically revisit documents and pictures that have stumped you.
While looking at documents, think about questions related to the content, time, person, etc.
Look for extraneous information in pictures such as details about locations, setting, clothing, etc.
Check the back of old photos, looking for information related to the picture; dates, names, other information, etc.
Look at middle names in documents. Are the names more surnames than "middle names", such as Greenlee, Tilford, etc. as opposed to Paul, Jonathan, etc.
Follow up with relatives about stories they may have told you and you walked away with questions you didn't follow up on or questions you had.
As a genealogist or family history researcher, you'll not only be looking at source documents and records, you'll also be chasing down hints that will help unlock lots of other family secrets! Be sure to watch for clues in your documents and photos...you never know when a small clue or two will lead you to some new discoveries!