Revisiting Your Past Research Yields Treasure!

By Sue Ward~

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in what we are presently researching, we tend to forget what we have already acquired.  This is a big mistake.

After publication of our first Patriot Edward Williams book, those records were filed away.  I began working on another collateral family of mine, the Jarretts.  As I did a DAR application on this collateral family from Lunenburg County, Virginia, I started to recognize familiar names.  I pulled out copies of Pendleton County, South Carolina deeds used in our first book and realized there was not just one, but three other family names listed on those pages!  When the book was written, I did not know of all these collateral family names so I could not recognize them.  Those names included Wright, Gist, Allen, Mize, Buckner and others.

Then we published our second book, Early Virginia Colonial Families.  When the Lees passed through Anson County, North Carolina, we could see there was a lot to be discovered from this region, but it was going to be time consuming, and was somewhat outside the scope of the book as planned.  We got out of researching Anson as quickly as possible in order to get the book published. Including Anson County might have made the book 600 pages long, and could have delayed us for years.

Of course, inquiries later arose about the Anson Lees.  We recently began digging deeper.  The same thing happened.  Several of the Lees married into those same collateral families from Virginia in the next generation.

The Lesson

The records with the answers to later questions were sitting right in front of me the whole time.  The “lone” story from our first book was not alone at all.  Those families left Virginia for North Carolina then went on to South Carolina and into Georgia.

The point here is, slow down your speed reading and take time to note the names of neighbors on censuses, border neighbors on maps and deeds, making sure to look at the names of witnesses on any documents.  Those witnesses are other relatives and neighbors.  All those names may be meaningless to you at this point in your research, but you never know when they may reappear.

It also never hurts to go back in your notes and files and just re-read from the beginning. You may find a clue that had no significance at the time, but subsequent information has revealed its true worth.

Train your brain to recognize names you are seeing repeatedly.  It’s not easy at first, but soon, you will begin seeing treasures before you.