As I neared the finishing touches to the new Pharos course I am teaching, Researching Ancestors in Continental Europe I gathered up the last pile of notebooks in which resided some material for potential adding to the course material.

As I flicked the pages, it occurred to me that some of the smaller notes might be useful as blog posts. I shelved the idea for the next week or so and then found myself searching for a note that I knew I had written, but could not find so I could add to the lessons. When I eventually found the note, all 6 lines of it, I realised that I had spent 5 hours looking for it, though I had been side tracked several times.

For readers who might be thinking why not add it to the index in the notebook, I had, but it was not presented in a meaningful way; abbreviated for space saving purposes is fine, but the note does need to be written in a way that provides a clue! It also needed to be written legibly!

So over the coming weeks and months you will likely see these posts (placed in the category of Genealogical Field Notes) and you never know, you might even find something of interest!