I’m still learning a lot about how to best research ancestors and family members and I was very intrigued by this detailed story of researching a mystery family member by Craig Manson of GeneaBlogie.

Our task is to track a relative throughout her life using available records. We are interested in Velma Mitchell, who’s a cousin on the Bryant side of the family. Here’s what we know about her to start with: she was born in either Nueces County or Aransas County, Texas, probably before 1920. We also know that she had two brothers, Pat, and J.B.

From that little bit of information, Manson begins the search, taking him through census records, marriage records, social security death indexes, and more. There is a lot of information found, but most of it based upon assumption.

Working through the assumptions, Manson leads us through self-doubt and fact checking trying to figure out if the persons found are his Velma Mitchell.

Having been in this situation many times, feeling hopeless and frustrated with where to turn next, his article gave me confidence to know that there are step-by-step procedures and processes-of-elimination which will help break the mystery barriers.

His conclusion? Searching for an individual might get you nowhere, but searching through their relatives might get you to the individual. Good idea.