Sticking to the Protocol

It's when we are deep within the tedium of a genealogical search that it seems as if we are cast into a vast vacuum. Like in outer space, there is no grab bar to reach for to steady our floundering steps. We are floating free, unanchored to any orienting document. And it's those documents we are so desperate to find.

As I walk my way through the process of searching for signs of documentation for the extended family of Franciszek Jankowski, I realize I do have one anchoring token. It is a process I adopted years ago, when I realized that adding descendants of collateral lines would help me place DNA matches in their correct family constellations. Starting with the chosen ancestor, I would first work on documentation for that ancestor's firstborn child. When marriages occurred and children were eventually born to that now grown firstborn, I added each one in order. 

Rather than skipping from firstborn immediately to second born of the target ancestor, I then slid down the ladder of that firstborn child's own children, then grandchildren, all the way to the present date, before moving back to the ancestor's second born child. I'd repeat the process for that firstborn child's own children, handling that child's firstborn all the way down the generations before coming back for the next-born child.

Now that I'm working my way through Franciszek Jankowski's nine known children, looking for confirming documentation through the BaSIA website in Poland, I'll be sticking to that same protocol. Granted, with so many of the Jankowski children dying in infancy, the process won't be as tedious as it sounds. (So far, I only have three Jankowski daughters identified as marrying and having children.)

The process, however, still will take time. Every person needs to be accounted for, whether through the baptismal and marriage records I found through FamilySearch.org, or by using the index at BaSIA to locate archived civil records in Poland.

There is nothing so helpful as seeing the digitized copies of records from the 1800s in Poland, something I could never hope to accomplish in person by myself. I'm grateful for the opportunity, but nearly holding my breath as I work my way through the process, hoping not to miss a single step through this extended family tree.