Looking at the big picture

I would have had a lot less trouble finding Mary Bailey Arrington (see my last blog) if I had remembered another lesson I've learned from my genealogy research: look at the big picture. Instead of focusing on one specific line of a family, I find it's best to look at collateral relatives as well. I learned early on in my research to take a very close look at godparents, confirmation sponsors, and witnesses of marriages. More often than not, these people are close relatives of the person being baptized, confirmed, or married.

This is especially true in German families. Parents often chose siblings or cousins as godparents for their children. When I was researching my German ancestors, I was able to "grow" my family quite a bit just by looking at these godparents.

Rather than having "tunnel vision," as some genealogists tend to have, I prefer to look at the family as a whole. After all, we are not isolated individuals living out our existence. We interact with family members and other members of society, and this interaction helps to make us who we are.

A few years ago, I had run up against a brick wall with my great-grandmother, Ottilia Margaret Schnapp. I had found her with her family in the 1870 census and had found her family (without her) in the 1880 census. However, I had never found her in the 1880 census. Since my great-grandparents were married in 1882, I was particularly interested in where she was living right before her marriage. I searched in vain for many months, but was unable to locate her.

I turned my attention, then, to another branch of the family. Ottilia's future father-in-law had several cousins who lived in the area and attended the same parish. (I had found them through the baptismal records.)

One of the cousins was a man named John Sebastian Deck. I was following his family through the census and came across his family in the 1880 census. Sebastian's family was listed at the bottom of one page, then continued at the top of the next page. When I went to the second page and scanned the names listed there, I could scarcely believe my eyes. At the end of the listing was the family's domestic servant, a 21-year-old woman named "Tillie Snapp."

I knew immediately that this was the great-grandmother for whom I had searched so long, and I had found her without even looking for her. If I had not been looking at the big picture and researching those cousins I never would have found her.

If I had just remembered this lesson while researching the Baileys, I might have found Mary Bailey Arrington a lot sooner. After I found Mary and her husband, I was looking back over some old notes from several years ago, where I had recorded a marriage record for Mary's sister, Cora. In my notes were the names of the witnesses at the marriage: Mary Bailey and Thomas Arrington.