Once in a while something just falls into your lap. Once in a great while it seems like you were just "meant to find something." While most research is accomplished by methodical and planned digging, once in a great while a piece of information comes at you from out of the blue. We've all got a few lines where we are hoping for our "miracle" (I have several). While I'm waiting for the genealogy angel to visit, I'm still researching the "old-fashioned" way, slowly and carefully analyzing those records that are most likely to bear genealogical fruit.

Shortly after my wife and I were married we went to Mercer County, Illinois, to do some research on her Smith family. Part of our research involved the use of court records. The families being researched were all pre-1900 and our scanning of the defendants' and plaintiffs' indexes was done with that time in mind.

I turned the defendants' index to the "S" section and began working my way to those cases before 1900 (I actually started with those cases that became ca. 1910 in order to catch any cases that potentially drug on for several years). In order to find the appropriate section of the index, I was looking at the last entry on each page of the index and seeing what year the case began. The first page I turned to was well after 1910 and the names of the plaintiff and defendant caught my eye as I flipped the page forward. Charles and Mattie Silsby! I turned the page back and sure enough there was the divorce for my great-grandmother's sister and her husband. My last known reference to the family was in the early 1900s near the county line between Hancock and Henderson Counties. Mercer County was only two counties to the north, but time had not yet allowed an exhaustive search of all outlying counties. I had not researched the family actively in several years and here was information helpful to my search. I might never have found it had I not been researching my wife's Smith ancestors in that county. The divorce provided information on the couple's children, including the city of residence for one of them.

Quite a few years went by and I was again stymied on the same family. Other activities had taken priority and I had not actively researched the family for several years. An article I wrote prompted a reader to ask a question about the 1880 Hancock County, Illinois Federal census. I answered her question and happened to note in her e-mail signature that she lived in the same town where the divorced couple's daughter once lived. I asked if she could possibly do a quick lookup on the individual for me. She could and located the double wedding of two daughters of the divorced couple! Another unplanned big break on this family.

A recent article of mine in the Ancestry Daily News discussed several court cases, one of which involved my ancestor and the Penland family of Fleming County, Kentucky in the 1830s. Shortly after the weekend edition of the Daily News came out, I received the following message (paraphrased here): "I was working on the Penland family at the exact moment when the weekend edition of the Daily News arrived in my inbox. I was surprised to see the reference to the court case. I descend from the Penland family mentioned in the article."

Needless to say I was surprised too. I replied back and attached to my email reply a typed copy of the entire court case. I had been told that the Penland family might have had connections to the Tinsley family who was also involved in the case (and one of my ancestral lines). The correspondent was able to provide me with additional information and, as usual, I need to follow up.

Sometimes it's not as much luck as it is asking the correct questions. After much asking, I finally obtained the month of death for my wife's great-grandmother. A death notice in the Chicago Tribune provided a good approximation for her date of death in addition to the name of the cemetery where she was buried. I phoned the cemetery and they confirmed that great-grandmother was there. I asked if there was an entry card for her last husband, providing his first and last name. The lady said "no" and started to tell me "goodbye." Before she ended the conversation, I asked if she could determine who was buried in the plot adjacent to great-grandmother. A few seconds later she came back on the phone and told me. The entry had the man's first, middle, and last name. The first and last name were exactly the names I had given her when I asked a few seconds earlier. It was the same person (except that I did not know the middle name). I did NOT point this out. The lady on the phone provided me with the date of birth and date of death for great-grandmother's husband. Was it luck? Not exactly. An understanding of how most cemetery records are kept and maintained helped me to ask the right questions. The death date was extremely helpful in my research. The location is Chicago and the surname is Williams (enough said). Having a date (which still needs to be confirmed from other records) will make the needle in the haystack somewhat larger and hopefully easier to locate.

Luck sometimes is of your own making. There are some ways that one can increase the amount of serendipity in their own research:

1) Become aware of other family members besides just your own direct line. While researching, you may notice information on these families in your research.
2) Pay particular attention to neighbors, especially in census records and other materials that are organized geographically.
3) Learn about the records being accessed. A little knowledge can make you appear to be much more lucky than you actually are.
4) Work on a different line for a time. Coming back anew may provide the perspective and fresh approach to get your research going again.
5) And as mother says "keep your eyes peeled."

Is this to say that we should just research at random, hither and yon, hoping to stumble upon something purely by chance? No. What it is saying is that one should always keep one's eyes open. Once in a great while, something is stumbled upon purely by accident. The unexpected find excites us by the very nature of its surprise. A thorough and complete research plan increases the likelihood of our "unexpected" success.

Copyright 1999, Michael John Neill. Michael John Neill, is the Course I Coordinator at the Genealogical Institute of Mid America (GIMA) held annually in Springfield, Illinois, and is also on the faculty of Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, Illinois. Michael is the Web columnist for the FGS FORUM and is on the editorial board of the Illinois State Genealogical Society Quarterly. He conducts seminars and lectures on a wide variety of genealogical and computer topics and contributes to several genealogical publications, including Ancestry and Genealogical Computing. You can e-mail him at:
mailto:mneill@asc.csc.cc.il.us
or visit his Web site at:
http://www.rootdig.com/