Digging Deeper to Find Missing Records

When I was little, one of my favorite things to do outside was to dig holes. Deep holes! Holes that might eventually lead to China, even! In my backyard, my friend Ben and I would compete to see whose hole was deeper. During elementary school, I would dig in the playground sand until I hit that beautiful Virginia clay I could make things out of. And when I went to the beach, I would dig until I hit water.

As determined as I was as a child, am I as determined with the holes in my genealogy research? Have I left any research question shallow and forgotten? Where might I return to take my research just a bit deeper?

Well, guess what, y'all? I found a hole in my research recently and it was a great learning opportunity for me. I was *so* sure that a marriage record for a particular couple simply didn't exist. Or, if it did, it was in a different state. 

But then I found that marriage record! How could it be so? I had written *two* research reports about this couple, and still hadn't found that elusive record. What changed?

When we are working on a research question, our goal should be to search in all the available places to find the evidence we need to answer that question. We need to nurture a critical eye, we need to be thorough, and we need to know WHERE to look.

In my search for a particular marriage record, I had a few pieces of information that could help me:

• The man was single in 1920 and a widower in 1930.
• The woman died in 1926 in Richmond, Virginia.
• The man lived in Powhatan County, Virginia, in 1920 and in Chesterfield County, Virginia, in 1930.
• The woman was born - according to her husband as the informant on her death certificate - in North Carolina.
• I had both people's whole names - but the surnames are unfortunately very common.

Where would you search first for the marriage record? Here were my thoughts:

• Powhatan or Chesterfield County, Virginia - where the man lived before and after.
• Richmond City, Virginia - where the woman died.
• North Carolina or even South Carolina (where the woman's parents were possibly from).

Where had I looked?

• In person - Powhatan County marriage register book
• Online - Ancestry databases
• U.S., Newspapers.com Marriage Index, 1800s-1999
• Virginia, U.S., Extracted Vital Records, 1660-1923
• Virginia, U.S., Select Marriages, 1785-1940

Helpful resources that wouldn't help this case because of years covered:

• Virginia, U.S., Marriage Records, 1700-1850
• Virginia, U.S., Marriage Records, 1936-2014

I searched all of these databases, but they are only that - databases. The marriage record images for later years are available on Ancestry, but not for the years between 1920 and 1930. Where might I find a marriage record in Chesterfield or Richmond? The Library of Virginia lists available records on their microfilm. These microfilm are accessible at the Library of Virginia in Richmond, and they're viewable on computers. This helps researchers who can then save images to a flash drive. 

• Chesterfield marriages 1853-1935 on Reel 12
• Richmond City marriages for the 1920s are in three reels at Library of Virginia
• Reel 71, 1916-1920
• Reel 72, 1920-1925
• Reel 73, 1925-1934

Great news, right!? They're available at LVA! But guess what, folks? I didn't search these microfilm. I made the mistake we might all fall into sometimes in earlier stages in our research. We assume if we didn't find it before, we must have searched all of these resources. 

The researcher we are today isn't the same researcher as we were yesterday. Today, we have more experience!

So what did I do? I first checked to see if those marriage records were accessible online at FamilySearch. There I found this database collection:

• Virginia, Bureau of Vital Statistics, County Marriage Registers, 1853-1935

But that must be the same database as the ones available on Ancestry right? I mean, they share so many records with Ancestry... Don't assume, y'all! Just don't do it. Because guess what I found after a simple search in that collection? The index to their marriage in 1922 in Richmond, Virginia! 

We should never stop at an online index. We need to view the actual record - if at all possible. In this case, the Richmond City marriage register is on microfilm and is digitized by FamilySearch; it's accessible, though, only at a Family History Center or an Affiliate Library. Luckily, I have an Affiliate Library 10 minutes from my work. 

So I took a trip to that library and now I have a digital image of their entry in the Richmond City marriage register from 1922! I just need to see if the original marriage certificate is available. That might have additional details not available on the marriage register.

Lessons

1. Dig deeper. Think you already looked there? Well, you should have a research log that tells you if you looked there already. If not, start keeping a research log of where and when you looked for a record.
2. Discover what's out there. You can't know what you don't know. If you don't know the available databases, available microfilm, or digitized records...you can't know where to search or browse for records.
3. Sometimes records DO exist. Sometimes they don't. But the fact that you haven't found them *yet* doesn't mean they're not waiting to be found.
4. Don't ASSUME. Just don't do it, y'all! I assumed in this case and it cost me time and frustration.

*****

Family history and genealogy research takes determination. It takes the focus and concentration of a 6-year-old boy from Chesterfield County on a quest to make it to China. It takes the humility of a child too to know when to admit that we haven't looked everywhere, just yet. 

In your research, have you left a research question with a shallow search? Have you dug everywhere you can? 

Your ancestors deserve the best researcher, the most passionate story-teller, and the dignity of being remembered. So let's encounter your ancestors through family history and remember the past made present today!

*Photo by Jeremy McKnight on Unsplash