Like other genealogists, I couldn’t wait to see what ancestors I could find in the 1950 US census when it came online in April 2022. I eventually received a “hint” from that collection on a major record website, an image of a possible match for my maternal grandmother.
But when I clicked to review the details, something else caught my eye: the right side of the page, where a dozen “suggested records” waited for me. Among the snippets were census entries from 1930 and 1940, marriage records, and an extract from a collection of Slovakian church books. All piqued my interest, so I started clicking links.
Two hours later, I was so far down a research rabbit hole that I’d forgotten all about the 1950 census.
Does this sound familiar? I fell victim to some of the tantalizing alerts, hints, record matches and more that vie for my attention. You might call them “squirrels” (in reference to the easily distractable talking dogs in Pixar’s movie “Up”) or “BSOs” (bright, shiny objects). These distractions can lead to overwhelming
