What Problems might you meet along the Way?

One of the biggest problems will find the researcher sometimes faced with relatives who have the exact key needed to open a few more doors on the history currently being researched; but they will not give you access to those doors.

Sometimes they might even go so far to hinder your work, their goal being to stop you at all costs from uncovering that X is not the natural child of Y. Alternatively, perhaps that Grandma might have been heavily pregnant at the time of her marriage with Granddad. Just as Y is not happy to have his relationship with X called into question. All these secrets and more, which we in the modern world accept and tolerate, were real problems for our ancestors.

Problems not necessarily associated with the living might include inaccurate entries in records of births, deaths, marriages and other events, sometimes deliberately, sometimes accidentally. You might find your work severely hampered because an illiterate relative has had his or her name entered official records by a well-meaning clerk who then goes to spell it wrongly. That 'Smyth' then, could well be the same Mr. Smith for whom you have searched for so long.