Everyone hits a brick wall at one time or another. Hitting a brick wall occurs when you just can't get past one person on your family tree. He is either missing from the census, his birth, marriage or death records can't be found or no one knows his name. Sometimes it seems like he just fell off the face of the earth. Before you give up all hope, do check the records for his children or siblings. Sometimes one of their records have a clue you've been missing. When all else fails, the best thing to do is to start working on a different branch for a while. New information has a way of surfacing after a while. Sometimes a new distant cousin is found and he or she has that missing piece of the puzzle. When you really feel you are at a dead end, hire a specialist. Be sure to give them a complete list of everything you have already checked.
Hiring a certified genealogist
Once you have found all the census records, birth, marriage and death records, searched the cemeteries, read their obituaries,
made descendency charts and talked to all your cousins and distant cousins, how do you find out more?
If you cannot travel to the cities where your ancestors lived, it is a good idea to hire a certified professional genealogist
from that city. Be sure they specialize in the area and time period that you want researched (i.e. wills, property documents).
You may need to hire more than one genealogist. They generally charge between $50 and $200 an hour. For that reason, it is a good idea to get all the records and information you can before hiring a specialist. If you need help finding the census records or in locating distant cousins or creating a family history web site, I can help. My rate is $12.50 an hour for any of those tasks or for whatever help you need. Once you start needing records from other countries, you should hire a specialist.
Where do I find one?
Each location and genealogical problem requires a different answer. I would check to see if there is a genealogy society in the location where you want the research done, and ask for recommendations from them. You could also join a rootsweb mailing list for the location in question and ask for recommendations from list members.
Where else can I find information?
Check out my LINKS page, there is a lot of free information to be found on the internet if you are willing to search for it. Or you can try some of the subscription databases below. They have a lot of information that you can't get anywhere else - or at least, not all in one place.
WHERE DO YOU GO FROM HERE? 
