In life there are many things that we hear the term "glass ceiling" associated with. Although a metaphorical glass ceiling does exist in genealogy, not every researcher ends up hitting it. The reason for this is that we encounter brick walls in which (after much dedicated research) are able to break through. The glass ceiling is only encountered when the records run out. The purpose of this post though is to focus on research that is moving in the other direction - descendancy research.
In simple terms, descendancy research is defined as tracing all of the ancestors that descend from a single couple. The majority of these people are not your direct ancestors, rather they are your distant cousins. There are a multitude of reasons why you may want to find these people. Maybe they are the ones that inherited the family heirlooms and photographs; maybe one of them is the perfect candidate for that DNA test that will allow you to break through the brick wall; or maybe you just want to see what their stories are. Regardless of the reason, at one point you will hit the metaphorical glass floor which blocks you from performing further research with census and vital records. The glass floor exists for a very valid reason - to protect peoples' privacy. The privacy laws vary with each country and record set so be sure to look into those for the areas that you are researching in. Canada utilizes a 92 year privacy law for census records, but the time for BMD records varies by province and record type. For example, Nova Scotia has a 100 year seal on birth records and a 50 year seal on death records, whereas Ontario has a 98 year and 73 year seal respectively.
When the glass floor is hit, research doesn't have to stop. You just have to change your approach. Below is a list of some of my favourite types of records and things to look for when I am trying to break through the glass floor.
1. Newspapers
When I am searching through newspapers, I like to look for BMD events. Obituaries tend to be the most valuable as they often list every surviving and deceased family member as well as the spouses. A single obituary can provide you with atleast two further generations if you are lucky.
2. City Directories
Although they are slightly less obvious about identifying familial relationships, they do identify the working adult family members that live at the same address. The key to using them effectively is to trace a family for several years and see when new family members with the same surname appear that that address. City directories provide the nearest substitute to a census record and are not protected by privacy laws, therefore making them an ideal source.
3. Genealogical Societies
If you have fellow genealogists in your family tree, the odds are that they have became invested in researching where their ancestors lived. One of the best tools for performing local history comes from genealogical societies. In most cases, genealogical societies allow you to find distant cousins by increasing your chances of meeting someone that is researching the same family and/or someone with a name that you have already encountered in your tree.
4. Social Media - more specifically local history groups
Social media is a bit of a dicey one for me. I have personally had someone send me something over Facebook before when I was a teenager and quite frankly it freaked me out. If you want to make contact try and do it in the most non-creepy way possible. Leading with a loaded statement such as "We share a mutual 5x great grandfather" will probably scare someone off. Try opening with a something that doesn't imply you have spend the past however many months trying to track them down. Ask for their permission to further the interaction into their family history and ACCEPT their decision regardless of what it is.
Local history groups on sites such as Facebook are a great resource. Look for people that are posting about your relatives. Odds are that these people are going to be much more open to speaking with you than someone that you cold messaged. The people in these groups are interested in genealogy. Even if they arent directly researching the same family as you, they often have a good knowledge of the local history which in turn could set you on the right path.
5. BMD Indexes - if available
I have found BMD indexes to be available for some regions of the UK. They provide just enough information that you can identify someone if you know exactly what you are looking for. The reason why they can remain in the public domain is because of the minimal amount of information that they contain. In most cases you will get the yearly quarter in which the event occurred, the location and one other record dependant piece of information. Birth records give the mothers maiden name (abbreviated as mmn). Death records give the age.
6. DNA Testing
I know that many experts speak highly of the what you can gain from a DNA test, but I personally don't see the benefits as enough to out weight the enormous amount of personal information that they put into the public domain. In the case of an adoptee or someone with unknown parentage, I do see the benefit as this is one of the few ways that that person can begin their genealogical research. There is tons of information on the major genealogy sites about how to interpret your DNA results so I wont be discussing that here. If you do find a common ancestor that you wish to contact, remember to lead with an inviting statement and accept their response regardless of if it is what you want to hear. (I wrote a post
here about sending messages on Ancestry). People do DNA tests for a variety of reasons. Some of them just want to know their ethnic make up but dont want to know about their distant ancestors.
7. Family Tree Hints
When your building a tree on a platform such as Ancestry, you receive suggested parent hints. Many people simply view the name, BMD, and relative information without actually checking the source. Ancestry doesnt simply pull these hints from records. The website actually scans other member trees looking for ones that contain the same people you are researching.
The above image shows a hint that I received within my own Ancestry tree. I have highlighted the line at the bottom of the hint that says "Where is this information from?". If you click on that, it will drop down a box saying the tree that the information came from as well as the username of the person who built the tree. If you are trying to break through the glass floor, the user who built the tree might actually be the same person you are looking for or they are their direct descendant. Be sure to check the last date that they were active before messaging - its not uncommon to receive a hint based on an abandoned tree.
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