It's the last day of the month, and what can I say now? I was hoping for a photo finish, pulling up the probate records for my mother-in-law's eighth great-grandfather Richard Cheyney at the last moment, but no: it won't be possible quite so soon. Some things take time in the family history research world.
Looking back at this month's research challenge, I can't say I'm entirely disappointed at overall progress. This missing record will be added to my planning list for next time, whenever that next time will materialize for future lineups on my Twelve Most Wanted. And that's okay. Each year, as long as I keep pushing backwards through the generations, targeting research goals and being open and flexible to where the documents will lead me, I'll make progress.
Considering we started this month by working on my mother-in-law's fourth great-grandfather, William Ijams, we did work back a few generations. Not only did we look at William's direct paternal line, but we took time to examine some points about those hard-to-find colonial women who married into William's patriline. And from those discoveries—especially when I could locate wills detailing collateral lines—I've been working on their descendants whose DNA might put them in my. husband's list of (admittedly very distant) DNA cousins.
Tomorrow brings a new month, and with it a new research project, as we jump to the sixth of my Twelve Most Wanted for 2024, and the third ancestor linked to my mother-in-law. Every month's project is a new research adventure. While William Ijams' ancestors kept us on this North American continent far longer than I—and certainly my mother-in-law—ever anticipated, with tomorrow's project, we may find ourselves looking for passenger ships' records sooner than we thought.
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