Puzzle Pieces in a Tree

When we were younger we used to spend a lot of time doing jigsaw puzzles. Searching for the right piece to fit into the empty spaces and filling in all of the holes are so fulfilling, challenging and addictive. Sometimes doing genealogy is like working on a family puzzle. This week we have been searching through an index (brief abstract) of records from our grandfather's town in Eastern Europe (Galicia). Our search has helped us find more information about relatives that we already have in our family tree. We have been able to add marriage, birth and death information and source citations for many relatives. This led to us finding additional children for many couples already in our family tree. This has helped us flesh out the family tree even more. Most importantly, we found the name, birth year and death year of our grandfather's youngest sister. Before starting our research, our grandfather told us that his parents had eight children but he only knew the names of three. Now we know the names of all eight. Filling in all of these pieces of the puzzle is not only intellectually stimulating, it is genealogically important. These people are family and they deserve to be documented and remembered.

Jacobson and Jacobson Genealogy Researchers http://www.bocafengshui.com/genealogy.html
specializing in Jewish Genealogy.