Becoming too invested in one ancestor?

[andrewalston]

Every month or so I review my direct ancestors and check the folk furthest back on each line. Occasionally I come across a fresh nugget which has appeared online, and another half a day is needed to follow it up.

So not invested in one ancestor these days, but I did spend a LOT of time searching for my direct paternal gggg gf's origin. Found a lot about my ggg gf on the way, including nine different spellings of his surname - none of which matches mine!

[radstockjeff]

"They will be found when they want to be found..............."

My particular brickwall related to OH Gt grandmother Lucy Nurse (nee Greaves/Grieves/Greeves) who disappeared from view in South Shields in about 1878 after the birth of her fourth daughter.
Family myth and rumour had it that she had run off with a butcher from Jarrow.

I searched for 10 years looking for traces of her and followed many blind alleys in my search.
It was only by chance, surfing the net for someone else that I eventually got a positive lead and found her.

In the process of leaving her husband and taking up with another man she was know by a number of aliases and when she eventually married her new man (declaring herself a widow in the process) they continued the subterfuge and changed their surnames.

Not only changing names but also successive entries in the Census records from 1881 to 1911 their places of origin/birth also changed each time. They obviousyt did not want to be traced and their secret was safe for over 100 years.

Likewise her 5th daughter (the first of the second round) has also disappeared from the the radar but we live in hope for a breakthrough on that score at some time.......

"They will be found when they want to be found....................."