Pandemic Research!!!

 As the pandemic drones on and on, I've finally gotten my research groove back.  A year ago at the beginning of the pandemic, I couldn't focus and realized I was just trying to distract myself with research, and wasn't making any great headway due to my distraction.

Now, a year on -- I've reignited my research genes, and made some great discoveries.  I've gone back to some of my original research that I did via microfilm, before the internet even existed (sounds like the dark ages!).   New records have come online, and so I've added those and corrected some of my original suppositions with facts and records.

I've greatly expanded some of my Cornish lines -- particularly a branch that went to New Zealand and another to Montana.  I found ancestors on my Oats line via a DNA match names Atkinson, who's ancestor had married Elizabeth Sara Oats.  I had her in my tree, but she had "disappeared" -- and reappeared in New Zealand, where she and a brother emigrated.

The Montana connection is through my Davey line.  They emigrated to work in the mines, and then became ranchers.

I haven't spent that much time on my Irish side, but recently cleaned up some confusing NEE families. I had two Colman/Coleman John Nee's born the same year or so - one came to the USA (Pittsburgh) and one I'm not sure on.   Multiple online family trees have these 2 men mixed up, so trying to sort out through  original baptism/marriage records has been a challenge.

Ancestry's DNA hits, and Thru Lines have helped tremendously in unearthing some small matches that helped solidify research presumptions, and proved the connections. Sometimes just one connection this way has led to hundreds of new cousins. 

Coming back to this blog reminds me I need to document all these "new" findings, so that I can recall how I got there.  Reading back through my old blog entries reignites my interest in discoveries and documentation.  I like to set out my original assumption, why I thought this and then the records that helped to corroborate my idea or disproved my theory.