Finding the Old through the New, Tearing Down a Decades-old Brick wall (Part 3)

Through the efforts it took to research the Dean line, Harry Fenton Dean was a piece of cake next to his father, Henry C. Dean. Through piecing together his life story, it took learning to research in the following manner:

·      Learning to perform in-depth research in Illinois

·      Using Inter-library loan to obtain books and microfilms

·      Making trips to the Salt Lake Family History Library for special books

·      Doing contextual and supplemental research through newspapers

·      Using a digital microfilm scanner

·      Researching genealogy in 1800s southern Illinois—my new specialty, thanks to this family

·      Using territorial, pre-state records

·      Learning about 19^th century farming communities

·      Using court and probate records (even widow’s relinquishment)

·      Performing research on hypotheses based on indirect and, at times, circumstantial evidence

·      Chasing after elusive cemetery listings

·      Doing research outside of the Big 4, especially Ancestry. It was my comfort zone for too long. Btw, Illinois State Archives and Illinois Digital Archives have some great materials.

I could go on and on, but you see why it took me 8 years to learn research techniques piecemeal and finally find Henry’s full story in time.