Bird-walking

Chickens are completely blind at night, even if they sleep with their nictating membrane over an open thirdeye (creepy!) I see about the same as chickens without glasses: Nothing! And I don’t have a third eye, that I know of…

Sometimes I start researching a family member, with a specific goal in mind, but a record or picture excites me and I change directions, only to change directions again and again… (are you following me?) In family history those direction shifts are sometimes referred to as chasing bright shiny objects. They are so intriguing that we follow them for a while and end up researching family that may or may not even be related to you. (There are benefits to this, like FAN research) But in general, this is called bird-walking, whether we intended to research our grandfather and ended up at our 3rd cousin’s wife’s sister… (totally done that! Anyone else?)

Bird-walking is when we get off track of our intended goal or research plan. And before you panic that you need a plan or goal every time, I say you don’t. I know that is not a popular opinion but if I have checklists, I dread doing family history. If I am free to see where the road takes me and write where I have been as I go, then I feel excited to see where the journey leads and have been very blessed to find documents and records that actually end up being helpful, even if I had to take what appeared to be an aimless attempt at flight.

So what does that have to do with the dark? When we are blind or clueless it can be difficult to see a way ahead– keep looking, keep asking. If you are not familiar with FAN research, that can also be helpful. The light of the day will come, but sometimes it takes pecking for many years a little at a time until you abandon it for the moment. Don’t give up! Keep pecking. You never know when the right time or record will be waiting for you, like when I sent a shot-in-the-dark email to New York to find more about Polly.