Let's jump in the deep end

I'm working on identifying and documenting my 2x great-grandparents.

Here are the generations, working back:

1. Me
2. My father, John Arthur St. John
3. His mother, Adelaide Martha Groth St. John (m. Archie Ivan St. John)
4. Her mother, Leontine Faith Botsford Groth (m. Fredrich William Groth)
5. Her parents, George Arthur Botsford and Rhodeline A. Wilkins Botsford

George and Rhodeline are hard to pin down. There are many George Botsfords living in the 19th century in New York. There are at least two living in Otsego County. Rhodeline has an unusual name - perhaps too unusual. Every census I have found lists her name differently: Rhoda, Rodelice, etc. According to the census, her parents were born in England.

I have followed every clue I've found so far. I've paged through censuses looking for variations on her name. I've followed through on every George Botsford I've found. I have George's obituary and I have followed every clue in it. I have yet to find solid information on their births or their parents.

Sidebar on obituaries: obituaries can provide lots of clues, but beware of inaccuracies. 

For instance, in this obituary, George's birthplace and parents are listed. After diligent searching, I can find no record of those people in that place at that time. I may yet find that it is true, but failing further documentation, I cannot assume it is true.

So what do I do next? I go back to the generation where I have documentation and I look for additional documents that will give me more clues. That means I return to Fred and Faith Groth, my great-grandparents. 

They present their own research challenges. Fred and Faith eloped when Faith was just 16. Faith's mother had Fred arrested for abduction. (It didn't deter them - they had been married for more than 55 years when Fred passed away.) After that, Fred always claimed his age was three years older than Faith - perhaps to avoid looking like a cradle-robber - but the naturalization papers and passenger list we found that we believe pertain to him make him seven years her senior. In addition, most documents list Faith's birthdate in 1881, yet she appears with her parents and older brothers on the 1880 census at one month old.

Faith & Fred in 1951

Thank goodness for that elopement because it made the papers, even in busy Manhattan. We have articles in two newspapers that agree on the names and the date and the church. This morning I ordered a marriage certificate from the City Clerk of New York and I contacted the church where they were married. Even though that church has had a name change and is now in a different building, they have the records and a team of volunteer researchers who are willing to dig into those old records from 1897.

So here is the rule of thumb I learned from James Tanner, blogger at Genealogy's Star and a volunteer teacher at the Mesa FamilySearch Library:  if you keep hitting dead ends, go back a level and look for more documentation. The additional documentation will provide many clues to follow that will eventually lead you to the information you need.