The take-aways?

There are three key, valuable lessons that we can learn from David's research.

1. Once we get back to the 1700s many records contain too few details for us to be able to identify an ancestor with certainty without a little further detective work.

2. This work is well worth it, to save the disappointment of searching branches that turn out not to belong on our own family tree.

3. Solving the problem doesn’t necessarily require you to look in esoteric record collections; instead it demands a methodical look at core records, such as parish registers and wills, as demonstrated by David in his case study.