Week 18 - Close Up should have been done several weeks ago - I will have to play a bit of catch up but I have a little time this week so hopefully I will be able to cover a few of Amy's prompts.
Taking a close-up look at a specific ancestor is an exercise I undertake fairly regularly. Sometimes I get so caught up on filling in dates in my tree that it is useful to step aside and make one specific ancestor the focus of my research. I create a timeline for the person, looking at the major events in the person's life, events that took place where they were living, and more. I focus on where they went to school, where they worked, the places they lived, if they ever found their name in the newspapers. I look for census records, electoral rolls, medical records, wills, church records - the list goes on.
Once I start to drill down into the details of one person's life, it highlights not only what I know about them, but the gaps in my research - the details I have not filled in. The missing baptism for one of their children, the missing census record, the gap in their employment history. I go back through all the documents I already have for them and reexamine them, looking for any little details I may have missed earlier. There is always something to find.
Without that close-up examination, my research cam end up being just a list of names and dates. That may be all some people want - but I love finding the small details that bring my ancestors to life for me, and a close-up examination of a specific ancestor does that - it fills out the details and gives me a fuller and more detailed image of their life.
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