Ah, jigsaw puzzles. The frustration of attempting to piece them together gives way to the joy of seeing the completed image resolve before you. This scenario sounds all too familiar to the keen family historian... who, after all, is simply working with a different kind of jigsaw puzzle.
What do we do with those gaps or should we say missing puzzle pieces?
Why should we pay attention to research gaps?
When you’re working with a jigsaw, you acknowledge the holes in the picture from the very start. Just because you’ve pieced together a single cat at the edge of the frame, you don’t assume that the entire picture is full of cats. So why, in our family history research, do we sometimes assume too much about an ancestor’s life based only on a small number of evidence points?
Gaps matter, because the ancestral story we see is the result of the evidence and the gaps taken together. Ignoring our research gaps can seriously alter how we interpret the evidence. So let’s introduce Sophie’s Negative Space method, which harnesses the power of your research gaps to shape your onward searches for an ancestor.
What is Negative Space?
Sophie uses the term “negative space” to describe any part of your ancestor’s timeline where you lack documentary evidence for where they were or what they were doing. That absence of evidence can seem daunting, but it also holds a wealth of possibilities for us to explore.
When confronted with a gap in your jigsaw, you don’t just grab pieces at random and try them to see if they fit. Instead, you use clues from the edges of each gap: colours, shapes, details, to suggest what kind of pieces you need to look for next. Apply this same principle to the negative space in your ancestral research. Characterising your gaps will give clues as to which record sets to pursue.
Sophie then set out the process of how you can go about identifying and using negative space for a single individual in your family tree.
First: visualise your research
You need to see where the negative space is to make use of it, so always start by visualising the evidence you have in chronological order. Timelines are great for this, but they’re not the only way. You might use a spreadsheet padded out with extra rows to reflect the gaps.
Second: ask what’s happening at the edge of your research gaps
Examine the start (A) and end (B) of each piece of negative space and revisit the documentary evidence you have for your ancestor at these points. Where are they, and what’s happening in their wider family?
Every gap for your ancestor falls into one of three types:
Rester: A person that is in the same location at A and B.
Boomerang: Someone who has moved away and returned possibly numerous times.
Voyager: If they’re in a different place at A and B they’re a voyager, because they’ve definitely travelled. Search for evidence of migration this could mean exploring passenger manifests, settlement and removal records – perhaps even institutional records.
You can’t tell resters and boomerangs apart without actually doing the research, so keep an open mind. If you suspect a rester, then search for evidence of continuous residence using taxation records, electoral rolls or parish registers. If these don’t bear fruit, a boomerang may be more likely and you should explore similar migration sources to those for a voyager.
Third: context is vital
Compare your negative space with your ancestor’s overall timeline. How old are they and what phase of their life are they in during the gap? A young man might be a prime candidate for military service; an elderly pauper might be at risk of ending up in the workhouse. These ideas stimulate searches in specific record sets.
Also set your ancestor’s timeline against local, national and global events, such as conflicts, workers’ strikes and urbanisation. How might these influence where they would go or what they might be doing?
Reap the benefits!
Confronting that negative space prompts you to explore a wider range of records and keep an open mind about your brick walls – so it helps your tree to grow rich with new stories and collateral lines. Embrace the gaps in your research and you’ll open your eyes to the wealth of narratives you have yet to discover!
Report by Margaret Wills