How to Break Down Genealogy Brick Walls: A Practical Method

What a brick wall actually is

A genealogy brick wall is an ancestor you cannot trace further back. Their parents are unknown, their origin is undocumented, or every record you find leads to a dead end.

Brick walls fall into three categories:

• Information brick walls: Records exist but you have not found them yet
• Evidence brick walls: Records suggest several possibilities and you cannot decide which is correct
• Source brick walls: The records you need were destroyed, never created, or are inaccessible

The approach for each is different. Most "unsolvable" brick walls are actually information walls — the record exists, you just have not looked in the right place.

Step 1: Re-audit what you already have

Before searching for new records, exhaust what you already know. Open your GEDCOM in GEDminer and:

• Pull up the brick wall ancestor's detail card and list every fact and source attached to them
• Run Vital Sharpener on them to surface implied dates from related events
• Check the Errors tab — a contradictory date or impossible age might be the missing clue
• Use **Kinship Explorer** to map every known relative within four degrees
• Review the Locations tab for places associated with their family — these are your search regions

Nine times out of ten the breakthrough is buried in evidence you already have.

Step 2: Research collaterally

If the direct line is a dead end, work sideways. Collateral research means investigating siblings, cousins, in-laws, and neighbours of your brick wall ancestor.

Why this works:

• Siblings often appear together in censuses, wills, and migration records
• A brother might have a more detailed obituary naming the parents
• An aunt's marriage record might list a witness who turns out to be the missing grandfather
• Census records frequently group extended family on neighbouring farms

Use the People directory to filter by surname, then by location, to identify every potential collateral relative. Each one is a new research lead.

Step 3: Establish FAN networks

The FAN principle — Friends, Associates, Neighbours — was popularised by Elizabeth Shown Mills. It treats the brick wall ancestor as one node in a community, not an isolated individual.

Build your FAN list by:

1. Listing every witness on every document in their family (marriages, baptisms, wills, deeds)
2. Recording neighbours from each census enumeration
3. Noting godparents, sponsors, and bondsmen
4. Capturing any name that recurs across multiple documents

A name that appears three or four times across different events is almost certainly significant — research them as if they were a direct ancestor. The breakthrough often comes from a FAN member's records, not the ancestor's own.

Step 4: Map locations precisely

Vague locations are the most common cause of brick walls. "England" or "Ireland" is not a research location — it is a continent of possibilities.

Use GEDminer's Location Standardiser to tighten place names, then:

• Identify the smallest known administrative unit (parish, township, county)
• Map every event location for the family — they tend to cluster
• Note any movement: migration trails are clues
• Cross-reference with historical maps from the era — boundaries shift over time

A brick wall in "London" usually becomes solvable when you narrow it to a specific parish like Bethnal Green or Whitechapel and focus on that parish's surviving registers.

Step 5: Use DNA strategically

If documentary research has stalled, DNA can break through. Use the DNA Planner to identify which living relatives sit closest to the brick wall on the relevant line.

Approaches:

• Y-DNA for paternal-line brick walls (only male-line descendants)
• mtDNA for maternal-line brick walls (any direct maternal-line descendant)
• Autosomal DNA for brick walls within the last 5-7 generations — look for shared matches who descend from candidate ancestors
• Triangulation — three or more matches sharing the same DNA segment and a common ancestor confirms the link

DNA does not give you a name on its own; it confirms or rules out hypotheses generated by documentary research.

Step 6: Document negative evidence

When you check a record set and your ancestor is not there, document that absence. Negative evidence is real evidence — it lets you eliminate possibilities and prevents you wasting time re-checking the same source.

Keep a research log noting:

• What source you searched
• What date range and parameters you used
• What you found (or did not find)
• What this rules in or out

GEDminer's **Research Plan Generator** complements this by suggesting which sources to check next based on tree gaps.

Step 7: Take a break, then come back

Brick walls often crack months or years after you first hit them — because new records get digitised, new DNA matches join databases, or because you return with fresh eyes and notice a clue you missed.

Set aside any unsolvable brick wall for three to six months, then:

• Re-export your GEDCOM and re-run GEDminer's analysis (suggestions update as your tree grows)
• Re-search the same online databases — they add millions of records yearly
• Re-check your DNA matches; the match list grows constantly
• Re-read your research log with fresh eyes

Most brick walls fall to persistence, not brilliance.