Blind Spot

 

Do you have a genealogical blind spot? While tracing my ancestral states, I recognized a blind spot in my own research. Recognition is the first step in changing behavior. The second step is to tell family so that they will tease me about it forever. I'm counting on you, brother!

You've seen blind spots in online trees. Too many women without parents is one pattern that I see frequently. Women can definitely be hard to research, and my blind spot involves women, but in a subtle way. 

There are five factors that will move an ancestor into my "before and after" blind spot:

1. A late-life migration. 
2. Enough is known about the migrating family that research can proceed backwards in time.
3. Migrating away from a married child (generally a daughter) in my direct line.
   
4. The migrating family has a name that is challenging to research, with either a common name or a name that is often misspelled.
5. The migrating family is not the focus of research at that time.

A brief example of how this blind spot works is my 5th-great-grandfather, Thomas Carter. 

In 1834, in Morgan County, Illinois, he gave permission for his underage daughter to marry. That 1834 record created a dividing line in my mind. I was far more interested in his life before 1834 than his life after that date. His life and death after 1835 went into the blind spot due to the five factors.

Factor 1. Late-life migration. Thomas apparently left Illinois between the state census of 1835 and the federal census of 1840. His age is uncertain, but he was probably over 60 when he migrated. At that time, 60 would have been considered an old man.

Factor 2. Backward research is possible. I knew enough about where Thomas came from and his parents' names that I didn't really need to research forward and find his probate. 

Factor 3. Leaving a child behind. His daughter died young in Illinois, where her husband and her descendants lived for many more years. Originally I assumed that Thomas had also died in Illinois, but later learned from other researchers that he had migrated to Iowa, leaving behind his daughter and son-in-law.

Factor 4. Challenging name to research. A search on Ancestry shows over 100 men named Thomas Carter in the 1840 federal census. That was far too many to quickly analyze. 

Factor 5. Surname not in scope. Since my surname focus was on the allied Lake family, I set Thomas aside and pretty much forgot about him and his wife. I did no in-depth research on the Carter family and never even validated the research of my cousins. That all went into the to-research-someday list. You know, the research list that never gets done!

This is not the only ancestor that I've placed in this particular blind spot, unfortunately. One reconciled itself several years ago, which was the first time I recognized this blind spot. I thought it wouldn't happen again -- I was wrong.

So family, keep reminding me to check those blind spots! For my other readers, is there anything hiding from you? Do you see patterns of missed research?