A to Z Challenge – C is for Challenge

Family history is a never ending challenge.  If you’ve worked at tracing your family tree, you know that it is so much more that finding a leaf (hint) on your online tree data.  If only it was as simple as the TV ads make it seem.

Who were your ancestors? When did they live?  Where did they live? When? How did they get there? Why did they move? Which Solomon Rose is the one I’m looking for? (This is an ongoing question in one of the lines I’m working on.)  What was life like for them?

Sorting the clues is a challenge. 

One census record shows a person’s age as 24, but 10 years later, the next census shows the same person as 29.  ???

Did the people transcribing the records correctly interpret the handwriting? Is that an e or an a? 

Is John Smith truly the son of John Smythe?

The challenge, of course, is what makes it fun. There’s joy in every little success.