10 Best Strategies for Researching “Brick Wall” Ancestors

Whether we realize it or not, we sometimes find ourselves doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.

This can happen with our genealogical research, too: we keep looking at the same sources in the same places, wondering why we keep getting the same results. And that may lead us to conclude that we have hit a “brick wall” in our family history research.

If this sounds like you, it is time to start thinking creatively about your family history research. Take a look at these strategies to see if one (or more) of them can help you break through your genealogy brick wall!

Who or What is a “Brick Wall” Ancestor?

The term “brick wall” is used to describe an ancestor who, for lack of evidence, brings our genealogy research to a dead end. They often involve a difficult research question, and after hours and hours of research, an answer still cannot be found.

Brick wall ancestors come in a variety of shapes and sizes, including:

• The ancestor who moved from a known area to an unknown area, leaving no trace
• The SMITH (or another common surname) family, where every person has the first name of John, James, Mary, and Sarah
• The ancestor who changed his name or pretended to be dead after military service, creating a whole, new life and family
• The ancestor who vanished into thin air whenever the census taker arrived
• The ancestor who used a different name on every document
• Women with unknown maiden surnames
• Adoptees, especially those who were “absorbed” into other families
• Orphans
• Lawbreakers (multiple aliases, anyone?).

While it is true that some brick-wall ancestors simply cannot be found, many of the ancestors we have labeled as “brick walls” can be found if we know where – and how – to search.

Start With a Plan

Before you begin researching your brick-wall ancestor, you should create a research plan. This will help you stay focused while you research, and less likely to follow “bright shiny objects” or distractions that may lead you in the wrong direction.

Your plan should include a research question that is specific enough to describe exactly who you are looking for. Include the pertinent details of your brick-wall ancestor’s life as identifiers.

Examples of Research Questions

• Who were the parents of John W. Smith, born 1872 at Portsmouth, Scioto, Ohio, died 1927 at San Francisco, California, and married to Susan Jones?
• Was James Q. Jones, born 15 March 1853, at Campbell, Tennessee, the same man as James Q. Jones who died 30 September 1902 at Monroe, Tennessee?
• When and where did Polly Smith, born 12 December 1867, at Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, daughter of John and Mary (Jones) Smith, die?

For more about how to write a good research question, visit this article from the Board for Certification of Genealogists: Ten-Minute Methodology: How to Ask Good Research Questions.

Strategies for Finding Brick-Wall Ancestors

After crafting your research question, you will want to make a list of potential resources to research. The following strategies should help guide you in creating your list.

1. Review What You Know

This may sound simple, but it is a very important first step that should not be skipped. Gather up all the evidence that you have accumulated for your brick-wall ancestor, lay it out in front of you, and look it over. Carefully.

Why? Well, you have probably attended genealogy classes or read a few methodology books, and you may have gained experience and knowledge that you did not have the last time you reviewed the documents. You could already have the answers tucked away in your notes, or on your computer, but you previously lacked the expertise to pull it all together. In other words, you might see something now that you missed before.

You may also want to begin writing a family history narrative about your brick-wall ancestor to look for “holes.” These are the places where information is missing, undocumented, or simply does not make sense. Those “Where did I get THAT from?” moments are very powerful research tools!

2. Explore Name Variations

When you are searching in genealogy databases, you need to explore a variety of different spellings of your ancestor’s name. Getting hooked on a particular spelling is probably the Number One thing that trips up genealogists researching brick-wall ancestors.

Keep in mind that our ancestors may have been illiterate and unable to spell their own names. They were at the mercy of whoever was creating and writing documents for them. Try to think phonetically. Names were often spelled as they sounded to whoever was writing them down.

In addition to researching variant spellings, look for:

• Given names – sometimes these alone can yield results
• Initials instead of given names
• Middle names
• Nicknames
• “Mrs. Husband’s Name” for married women (i.e., Mrs. John Smith instead of Susan Smith)

Additionally, be sure to note if the database you are searching allows wildcard searches. Substituting a letter or part of a word with a question mark or asterisk may produce different results.

Keep a list of the variant spellings you have researched. Yes, it can be tedious, but it will save you from repeating those same searches again in the future.

3. Read the Papers

Old newspapers are a window into the past and put things into a social context. They may even reveal the smallest details of a person’s life. Remember, back in the day, everybody’s business was everybody’s business, and it often wound up in the newspaper!

Items to look for include:

• Obituaries, death, and funeral notices
• Marriage and engagement announcements
• Birth announcements
• Social columns
• Arrivals and departures (who is visiting and who left town)

Don’t overlook the advertisements. Important clues to an ancestor’s business or occupation may be found in ads, giving you one more clue to research.

Where to find newspapers online:

• British Newspaper Archive ($)
• Chronicling America
• Elphind
• GenealogyBank ($)
• Google News Archive
• NewspaperArchive.com ($)
• Newspapers.com ($)
• Online Historical Newspapers
• The Ancestor Hunt

4. Get Bookish

You might think of books as old-school research tools, but they can be a tremendous resource for finding clues about brick-wall ancestors. Millions of genealogy books have already been digitized and are available in digital libraries online. Some books can even be downloaded to your computer.

What to search for:

• Ancestor names (including spelling variants)
• Immediate and collateral family members
• State, county, and local histories
• Family histories
• Biographies

5. Diversify

Like your financial investments, you also need to diversify your family history research. You must look at many different types of records to do reasonably exhaustive research. Even the poorest ancestors may have left records where we do not expect to find them.

A few types of records to search for include (but are not limited to):

• Court records – wills, probates, guardianships, minutes, lawsuits
• Land Records – deeds, homesteads, auctions, cadastral maps
• Military records – pensions, enlistments, unit rosters
• Religious records – baptisms, deaths, marriages, church membership rolls, newsletters, histories
• School records – report cards, yearbooks, diplomas, school censuses
• Directories – city, business, school, telephone

Need help finding ALL the records? Get our FREE 5-page Family History Records Checklist!

6. Join Your Ancestor’s FAN Club

Sometimes called cluster research, FAN stands for Family + Associates + Neighbors. In other words, who were the people in your ancestor’s life?

Start by identifying everyone in your ancestor’s immediate family, even those who are not in your direct line. This includes your ancestor’s children, spouse(s)/partner(s), parents, stepparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, etc. A source pertaining to a family member may yield important clues about your ancestor.

Then try to find your ancestor’s associates and neighbors. Who did your ancestor work, worship, shop, and/or go to school with? Who lived on the properties next door? Be sure to research those named as witnesses to marriages, unknown names in wills, and guardians of women and minor children, as they may have been collateral ancestors or close family friends.

Finally, if your ancestor’s family gets lost between censuses, try following their neighbors and business associates. People often moved to new locations in family, business, and/or neighborhood groups. If the neighbors or an employer relocated, your ancestor may have gone along with them.

7. Map It Out

Maps are incredibly useful tools for family history research. Sometimes a map can help us visualize a situation and reveal clues that we otherwise might not see.

Map out your ancestor’s neighborhood. Other family members may have lived close by. Take note of known migration routes. Travel was difficult, so our ancestors kept to roads and trails that were previously blazed. Perhaps they chose to relocate somewhere along the trail.

Learn about the history of the location(s) you are researching. Find out when the state, county, or town boundaries changed. Your ancestor may not have moved his residence, but the boundaries around him may have changed over time. If you cannot find records in your ancestor’s home county, try looking in the neighboring towns and counties.

8. Create a Timeline

A timeline is the map of a person’s life. They are extremely helpful for sorting out confusing events and for finding “holes” in your research.

To create a timeline, make a list of all known events in your ancestor’s life. Take note of any gaps where you have little or no information. Compare your ancestor’s timeline with a historical timeline; understanding what was happening in the world around your ancestor may provide clues for where to search.

Look for inconsistencies. For instance, could your great-grandmother who was born in Ohio, married in Ohio, gave birth to six children in Ohio, and died in Ohio really have traveled to North Carolina to give birth to ONE child who remained in North Carolina for the rest of his life? Not likely.

Here are a few online resources for creating timelines:

• Timeline by Knight Lab
• Our Timelines
• Timetoast
• Cyndi’s List > Timelines

9. Test the DNA

DNA does not lie… but sometimes our ancestors did. In that case, the only way to find an answer to your research question may be to connect with a DNA cousin.

The type of DNA test you should take depends on your research question.

• Y-DNA is for males only and follows the male surname.
• mtDNA (mitochondrial) is for males and females and follows the “umbilical” (maternal) line.
• atDNA (autosomal) is for males and females and crosses both male and female lines.
• X-DNA is inherited from the X chromosome and is usually included with atDNA tests. The inheritance pattern differs in males and females and only includes some of our ancestral lines.

You may also want to upload your raw DNA data to additional DNA databases. This will allow you to “fish in more ponds” for even more cousin connections!

Check our Resources page for the most current discounts on DNA kits.

10. Get Social

If you haven’t already done so, try sharing your family history online. Add your ancestors to a one-world tree at FamilySearch or WikiTree (but keep your primary tree safe on your computer at home in case someone decides to make changes). Share your family history on social media. Join a genealogy group or surname group on Facebook. Tweet or “Insta” your family stories using the hashtags #genealogy and #FamilyHistory.

You may also want to share your family stories and photos on a genealogy blog or website. Your site will be indexed by Google and other search engines, making it a wonderful form of “cousin bait” for others who are researching your ancestors.

Finally, join a genealogy society. Look for societies to join in your local area, as well as in the locations where your ancestors lived. In today’s Zoom world, genealogy society meetings are often hybrid – held simultaneously in-person and online – and some societies (like THIS one) are completely virtual. You may never have to leave the comfort of your home to participate!

Wrap Up

We all have brick-wall ancestors, in one form or another. And the further back in time we research, the more brick-wall ancestors we accumulate.

Though it is possible to run out of records, making some ancestors impossible to trace, many of the ancestors we have labeled as “brick walls” can be found with a focused research plan and the right strategies.

Stop doing the same things over and over again, expecting different results. Start thinking creatively so you can finally locate your brick-wall ancestors!

What are YOUR favorite strategies for tracing your brick-wall ancestors? Please share in the comments.

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