Research by others

I complain (a lot!) about sloppy research by others and how it is posted and reposted online without care it seems.  Why do I bother to look at other people's research? Because it can provide clues.

I found a tree for a 4th great grandfather on my husband's side that had information I have never seen before.  I wondered where the information came from.  The tree had one source linked to it.  That source sent me on a treasure trove of information.

That source was from the War of 1812.  It was a pension index card.

I have a subscription to Fold3 which I haven't been all that happy with as I haven't ever found anything of real value in my opinion there.  That changed last night.

I found the entire pension file for the 4th great-grandfather.  His wife, my husband's 4th great grandmother, filed in 1819.  Now I had documents for information in the family tree I found plus more.

One of the grandmother's sisters provided an affidavit for the marriage of the veteran.  Now I had her married name and location in 1819.  That led to census records and finally her family information.

I am now building a family tree for the 5th great grandparents, parents of the 4th great grandmother.

All because I took the time to investigate a clue from a family tree posted online.