I have recently been reading Emily Croom’s Unpuzzling Your Past. She talks about the benefits of doing “cluster genealogy.”  This got me to thinking about what this really means. A quick search on Google, shows Wikipedia’s definition first:

Cluster genealogy is a research technique employed by genealogists to learn more about an ancestor by examining records left by the ancestor’s cluster. A person’s cluster consists of the extended family, friends, neighbors, and other associates, such as business partners. Researching the lives of an ancestor’s cluster leads to a more complete and more accurate picture of the ancestor’s life.

Why do it?

Most of us get so focused on researching the direct line ancestors, but here’s why this technique helps:

• The records of those extended family members and friends can provide pointers to the previous generation.
• Family groups often migrated to the same towns and lived near each other. You might find that neighbors are relatives.
• In a lot of cases a single record isn’t sufficient evidence to meet the proof standard, so researching by the cluster can provide additional records.
• Your direct line ancestor may be indexed incorrectly. Knowing the entire family can help you locate the family.
• Researching a larger group of ancestors improves your chances of connecting with other researcher.

How does it work?

You need to search beyond your direct line ancestors. Check out brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors and friends. Look for these individuals in vital records, land records, census records, and other compiled genealogies. Record your finding in your software, just as if they were related.

Don’t forget the spouses of these individuals, either. If your tree is lacking other researchers, the spouses’ trees might not be. Here again compiled genealogies may be available on these allied lines.

Census records really shine for doing this type of resource. Land and church records can also provide pointers to additional individuals of interest.

Conclusion

I certainly hope that you can see that by increasing your research options, you improve your chances of finding details and records about your ancestors.

Feel free to share how these techniques have helped you.

Finally, I’d like to thank Kimberly Powell, about.com Genealogy Guide for the information here.

Tags: Family tree, Genealogy