Think outside the square

Thinking outside the square applies to many things, one being family research. This week i have been helping on a family tree. The person who was doing her own family research had hit a brick wall. She had spent months looking for a place of birth for her Grandmother. By spending all her time on this problem, she had not progressed very far and had not been open to new ideas.

A fresh pair of eyes on the problem, opened up a new avenue of research for her. Hopefully she should now progress farther without going round in circles.

In family history research if you come up against a problem, then put it aside for a while. Come back to it with a different outlook and you may find that it is easier to solve.