Nancy Drew and Her Back-up Crew

In every Nancy Drew story, Nancy always had her "back-up crew" with her.  George and Bess always seemed to be with Nancy for every adventure, though I primarily remember them as being the brawn of the bunch.  Nancy was the brains.  It was Nancy who put the pieces of the puzzle together to solve the mystery.  George and Bess were along for the ride, and perhaps to undo the ropes around Nancy when the bad guys tied her up.

When you research your family tree, you are Nancy Drew.  You are the one gathering all the information and putting all the pieces together.  But, you cannot forget your back-up crew.  Your crew consists of relatives who may know family stories or can verify facts.  It also consists of other genealogists who very willingly serve as your back-up when the going gets tough (though I don't think they will literally untie the ropes if you are ever in that type of situation).  There are many times when I have come to what I think is a dead-end in my research, only to have another genealogist find a document that will help me continue.

When I began researching the Polish side of the family, I found many dead-ends.  I was unfamiliar with immigration documents and resources.  One day, I posted a general message about an ancestor on a message board.  It was a truly horrible message - something along the lines of "Looking for XX (18xx-19xx), married YY, etc."  And I posted it in a general Poland message board instead of the area they came from (which I didn't know).  Fortunately, the back-up crew came to my rescue.  A nice gentleman found immigration documents telling from where the family came (these documents were right under my nose, by the way).   He emailed me copies of all the documents he found, and even included a map of Poland with the city they came from circled!

Recently, I posted another message about another Polish relative.  I had a suspicion that I knew who her parents were, but I did not have any proof that they were (remember the "burden of proof"?).  By posting this message, another woman helped me by finding the parent's obituary, naming his daughter as the relative I had posted about.  She also found other obituaries for that family.  Turns out, she has a subscription to a newspaper archive website, which is why I was unable to find any obituaries for the family in my own searches.  She emailed me a copy of the obituaries for my files.

My back-up crew came to my rescue in my family tree mystery.  I now have some more puzzle pieces that I can put together and continue on in my search.  But just as I have a back-up crew, so must I be a part of a back-up crew for another researcher.  I must also be on the lookout for other genealogists who are "tied-up" in a dead end and help them "undo the rope."  If a researcher is looking for someone who would go to the county courthouse to get a copy of a record, I need to answer the call.  Or if I have access to a resource that another researcher does not have access to, I need to willingly offer my services to find that information for them.  It's all part of the genealogy search: sometimes being a Nancy, other times being a George or Bess.