When I was young I was often fascinated with the visual effect ofstaring through a window screen. If you focused your eyes just right,the screen could appear to be a solid surface. But if you looked beyondthe screen, the outside world became visible. Sometimes in research,especially in genealogy, we need to see through the screen to the largerworld outside of our family. Once we have seen the world, we can thenrefocus on the screen (our family) with renewed insight. Most of our"brick walls" are really window screens in disguise.

No one lives in vacuum. One question was raised recently by a friendabout his immigrant ancestor. His own personal brick wall. It turns outthat this particular ancestor is Norwegian and immigrated in the latterpart of the 1800s. Knowing the extent of genealogical records fromNorway and other Scandinavian countries, I expressed surprised at hisdilemma. To him, the Norwegian immigrant was a brick wall, to me, theimmigrant was immediately a window screen. He was focusing on thescreen, I immediately focused on the world beyond.

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