Genealogy is one of those hobbies that can really show how fickle fate can sometimes be. One day you are on a roll, finding every document you set out to. The next time, you could be hitting the proverbial “brick wall”, and getting completely frustrated. This might be the perfect time to check out the Genealogy Tip of the Day blog, or their Facebook page.
Part of what makes genealogy so addictive is those times when you are able to put together more pieces of the puzzle that is your unfinished family tree. It can be exciting to finish large portions of a particular genealogy project in one research session, or within a short period of time. That feeling that you have accomplished something, especially something you have been working on for a long time, can be incredibly motivating.
On the other hand, there will be times when your genealogy research will be little more than an exercise in frustration. You spent hours trying to track down a document, to no avail. You find out that an ancestor was married, but can’t quite work out to whom. You might be struggling with trying to untangle an especially knotted branch of your family tree, and getting nowhere. These are just a few of the things that can make it difficult to stay motivated to continue your genealogy research.
Now is the perfect time to check out the Genealogy Tip of the Day. This blog is an excellent resource for genealogists who are stuck and are out of ideas about how to make progress. The blog is written by Michael John Neill, and he posts one helpful genealogy tip each and every day. Perhaps one of these tips is exactly what you need to break through your brick wall.
There is more than one way to use the information on the Genealogy Tip of the Day blog. You can scroll through it, and scan for tips that seem relevant to what you having trouble with right now. You can check it daily for a brand new tip, just for fun, and to learn a little bit more about genealogy research.
Want more information? You can sign up to get a year of Casefile Clues, which is his weekly genealogy how-to newsletter. It only costs $17.00 for a regular subscription, or you can pay $10.00 get an entire year’s worth of back issues. The Genealogy Tip of the Day has a page on Facebook where you can ask a genealogy related question that someone on the group may have an answer for.
Image by Jeffrey Pott on Flickr