WikiTree Day: Have you broken down a brick wall? Would you like to share your tips/tricks or your story? [closed]

Question

Hi WikiTreers!

For WikiTree Day, we would like to feature how different members have broken down their brick walls.

Are you interested in participating in a group discussion on breaking down brick walls? 

What tips or tricks did you use? Was there a certain tool or feature of WikiTree that assisted you? Did you receive help from the community of generous Wiki Genealogists?

If you answered yes, we would love to hear from you! Even if you aren't interested in being on the panel/discussion group, perhaps you have one we can share?

We hope to see you at this event! Register here: bit.ly/3QxM3aQ

Answer 1

Ooh, I have one that was broken down several years ago. It was one of my couples that crossed the pond. I tried searching for their vital records, or anything that would show me location and parents. I did finally find a marriage record, but it was brief and just had the bride, the groom, and the witnesses.

Knowing how helpful this community is, I turned to the G2G for help. Several wonderful WikiTreers jumped in to help. One of them finally thought to research the witnesses to the marriage. It turned out that the bride's brother was one of them, and his records proved his relationship to his siblings and parents. What a happy dance I did that day!! The amazing generosity made quite an impression on me, and I still treasure that discovery.

Answer 2

Hi Azure,

YES! I have broken down several brick walls recently. I would be happy to join a panel / discussion group.

Answer 3

I found my 2xgreat grandfather's siblings and parents. When I started all we knew was what was written on part of a page from his 1805 New Testament with his signature. That listed his wives and children from his second marriage. It was through DNA matching and lots of careful research we succeeded.
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Dickson-4596

Answer 4

I have broken down a brick wall with a combination of revisiting documents and DNA confirmation 

https://anneyoungau.wordpress.com/2019/06/15/triangulating-matildas-dna/

Answer 5

I did an in-depth writeup on how I discovered that there were indeed two different men named Thomas Harvey who both lived in the same county in Mississippi and who had been conflated with one another. It involved hours of pouring over tax rolls and state censuses. I did eventually discover that one of them used the middle initial P. and the other used the middle initial W. so that's helpful to distinguish them.

Untangling two different Thomas Harveys of SW MS territory - WikiTree G2G

Another old brickwall finally crumbled in 2019, when some DNA matches finally allowed me to establish the parents of my 3x-great-grandfather, William Watson. Even then, I might never have found the "smoking gun", if you will, if it weren't that his older half-brothers had a very rare surname (Kirkes) and this allowed me to definitively place them (and William) in the censuses at the right place and time.

OMG. Another brickwall might be cracking... - WikiTree G2G

Answer 6

Through using WikiTree and DNA I worked out that I am likely to be related to everyone living in the 19th century with my maiden surname in the city where I grew up. Others may have moved in since, but the family I thought were not related probably are, I just need the DNA confirmation to be certain.

Answer 7

When I was starting out, a WikiTreer named Laura Bozzay helped me break a brick wall for Elias Felker, my 4th great-grandfather. I found all I could about him from a DNA match and I needed more information than what was available and while the match did help me obtain a bunch of info, he didn't know who his parents were.

 So, Laura checked out various censuses in New Hampshire and other documents and found more about Elias. After some exhaustive searches, she pinned down a possible father being Joseph Felker. 

This coincided with me checking out Elias's son, Jeremiah's death certificate in Haverhill where a Joseph Felker was listed as a father. He was actually the grandfather.

So, we pieced together what we could via several censuses and other documents and revealed Elias's father was most likely Joseph.

Answer 8

My major brick wall breakthroughs were both accomplished with the help of DNA. We had names for both of my mother's grandfathers, and for one we had a 1900 census record, but both men disappeared.

For the Norwegian immigrant (he of the 1900 census and a marriage record), there were several candidates with the right name and approximate age. DNA proved that he was the candidate who came from the same community as my great-grandmother but immigrated with his first wife, who divorced him (as did my great-grandmother, his second wife, after he disappeared). We'd now like to find out where he went.

For the other, who was briefly around in 1890, we had a name in the family Bible, which later proved to be close but not quite correct (Allen Morey for Albert Mory). For a while, it looked like we had nailed it down to a married Allen Morey living not impossibly farther west, but DNA was not providing any links to him (or, to the best of our knowledge, to anyone else). After some years, Albert's relatives began to do a little DNA testing, and we were eventually able to determine that he was the son of German immigrants, which explained why my mother had one fairly close German DNA match (previously assumed to be on her Norwegian side). Through his family, we learned that he moved to Texas and changed his name to Fuller.

The next brick wall we hope to solve through DNA would be the parentage of my Huebner g-g-grandfather, who first appears in the records already married and baptizing his children. It'd be nice if more Huebner men did Y tests (it's a common surname and they're not all related). So far we just have my brother and an out-of-wedlock cousin matching on Y.

Answer 9

Just putting a profile on WikiTree and waiting a bit broke down a brick wall in my husband's family for me.  In the 1930 census my father-in-law and his first wife had a son who we knew and daughter, Doris, who my husband and his brother (in their sixties and sons of the second wife) said they knew nothing about.  The first wife died of cancer in 1932 and I had a death certificate that said pregnancy was a contributing factor.  I made a profile for her and told the story of the missing Doris and her possible sibling thinking that perhaps they died.  About a year later, I got an email from the son of the missing sibling introducing himself and sharing a bit of the story.  His father had passed but Doris was still alive.  They had been adopted and apparently it was not spoken of in my husband's family because the father had promised to not get involved with the adopted children.  I have corresponded with Doris this year and added a profile for her deceased brother making the connection and information about the adoptive family available here on WikiTree.

Answer 10

Last year I broke the brick wall on my Scottish 3rd great-grandmother, Isabella McEwen (~1822 - 1899). Her parents were not named in her marriage or death record, and I couldn't find a baptism record in the right timeframe and location. 

If she followed the Scottish naming pattern for her children, I figured her mother's name was probably Janet. I found a Janet who married a McEwen in the town Janet was born. But, I didn't have enough evidence that they were the right parents: no baptism of a daughter Isabella, no daughter Isabella in the 1841 or 1851 census records. 

The key to proving the relationship was thorough research of Isabella's descendants and two potential sisters. On the birth record for one of Isabella's grauddaughters, the informant was "Janet Taylor, grand-aunt", who turns out to be Isabella's sister Janet. The informant on her other sister Christian's death record was "C. Black, niece", who turns out to be Isabella's daughter Christina. Then, I found Isabella's daughter Christina living at the same address as her aunt Janet in the 1901 census in separate households. And the address was actually the same address that both of Isabella's sisters lived and died.

WikiTree helped me to put all the pieces together -- it really helps to be able to write down notes and observations in the biography. The names of informants or witnesses, addresses, other people living nearby in the census, can all be important clues.

And then it really helps that I can fully explain myself in the research notes and explain why I'm confident I have the right parents.

Answer 11

I recieved help during the WikiTree Symposium and broke down one wall.

Answer 12

Back in the day, maybe a few ancestors, dropped part of there name, sometimes you have to put 2 and 2 together, and find out who they are, just a little research.