Wave your hand

How many of you are subscribed to one or more of the excellent Rootsweb mailing lists? There's more than one list covering Buckinghamshire (and plenty for other counties and surnames of course), and even if you feel you can't keep up with the volume of emails they are archived on line for you to search or browse at your leisure.

If you're on one of these lists, it's a good idea to wave your hand if someone else pops up researching the same surname in a similar area as you, just in case they know something that might be relevant. Recently I did just that, and it helped uncover a potential error in my own tree where I'd attributed Brightwell's HOLLYMAN's first bride Elizabeth HESTER to a particular baptism in Long Crendon (where the marriage took place in 1786), but it turns out that particular baby Elizabeth may have already married someone else in a neighbouring village. While I'd ruled out any earlier marriages for her in Long Crendon and thus identified her as a likely candidate, I hadn't looked elsewhere.

I'm sure we all know that just because some is "of Long Crendon" doesn't mean they were born there, but if you do find a suitable baptism of someone of the right name and right timeframe in the right place, remember to always remain open to the possiblity that it's still not the right person. Someone out there might just have evidence to the contrary or an alternative theory that's equally possible.