Researcher Par Excellence

You know, some days I feel like I am pretty bad.ass. Okay, let's be honest...most days. But some days I feel exceptionally so.

Like, say, today. You have a little hole in your story, and a tiny clue along with a hunch about what fills it. So you take off with directions to some nearly-forgotten cemetery, and lo and behold: you were right. And now you have proof, along with names and dates.

The story: a man is single in the 1847 census. By 1852, he has a wife and a newborn son and a 9-year-old daughter. Doing the math, the 9-year-old daughter is a problem. There are no death, birth, or marriage records from the time period. But you find out someone with the correct surname is buried in a nearby cemetery. You don't know if it is male or female, or what time period you're looking at for the burial. There is no caretaker or anyone else to contact to give you information on the grave. So you go to the cemetery. Not a large cemetery, but it could take an hour or so to inspect all the headstones. Some are in bad shape, the engravings faded with time and making them difficult to decipher. But you are lucky and go in the right direction and find the one you were looking for within 5 minutes. It's a first wife. Just as you suspected. And bonus, another daughter is next to her.

The hole in the story is filled. Yay, me. The hour-plus drive was totally worth it.