I recently worked with a client who faced a genealogy brick wall. He wanted to discover the parents of his 3x great-grandmother. We’ll call her Jane Doe. She was born in the early 1800s in Maine, married George Smith in 1835, and moved across several states before settling in Virginia before the 1850 census.
Well, I won’t sugarcoat it. By the end of my research, I had a good hypothesis but no answer. It happens, and it’s frustrating.
In this blog post, I’ll walk you through my research process and explain why the available records still didn’t provide a clear answer.
No matter what problem a client brings to me, my research process is always the same. First, I start with a comprehensive research question, then list possible record sets/sources that could answer it.
Research Question
Starting with a research question keeps you focused and on task. For this project:
Who are the parents of Jane Doe, born about 1813 in Maine, who married George Smith in Portland in 1835?
This uniquely identifies who we are talking about and what I want to know.
Research Plan
Now that I have my question, it’s time to make a research plan. The two things that will help me do this are time and place. I need to know which records are available to help me determine parentage in Maine in the 1800s. At least, that’s where we’ll start.
First, I’ll check to see what records exist for Portland, Maine.
The FamilySearch Wiki is one of the first places I check when researching in a new location. It explains when different record types begin for a county or town.
FamilySearch Wiki for Cumberland County Maine (Portland)
This tells me when vital records, court records, probate records, land records, and census records first became available.
Since I’m looking for birth and marriage records in the early to mid-1800s, I already know I’m not likely to find them.
That means there will likely be no official birth record for Jane Doe, who was born around 1813. I also looked for a marriage record for Jane Doe and George Smith. While their FamilySearch profile gave a specific date, I did not find a marriage record for them.
So I immediately need to think about other record types that might identify her parents.
Expanding the Search to Other Records
One helpful tool is the FamilySearch United States Record Finder, which suggests alternative records when the most obvious ones don’t exist.
This is just one category of other possible records that can help answer questions like, who are the parents?
One other wrinkle: Maine was part of Massachusetts until 1820, so always look at when boundaries were created around where your ancestors lived. You don’t want to waste your time looking in the wrong place!
With the research question and plan in place, the next step is to begin searching records that might reveal clues about Jane Doe’s family.
Looking for Early Clues
With no birth record available, I started searching for any references to Jane Doe or the Doe surname in early Portland records.
Other “Doe” Births
I found a copy of an early birth record for Thomas Doe, born in Portland on 15 January 1815, to parents Thomas and Esther Doe.
That raised an immediate question. Could Thomas Doe be a possible sibling of Jane Doe?
At this stage, it’s just a clue, but clues are what move research forward.
Newspapers
I searched The Portland Gazette, which was being printed during the time Jane would have been born.
Unfortunately, the newspaper did not publish birth announcements in 1813. A search for both Jane Doe and the surname Doe produced no results related to her birth.
City Directories
City directories often show who was living in a town at a particular time.
In the 1837 Portland City Directory, several Doe individuals appear:
- Ephraim Doe
- Thomas Doe
- Ebenezer Doe
In the same directory, Jane’s husband also appears: George Smith, dealer in wood, living on Oxford Street.
Looking at earlier directories helps narrow the possibilities.
1834 Portland City Directory
- Ebenezer Doe, notary public and Russian consular agent
1831 Portland City Directory
- Martha Doe, widow
These entries suggest that the Doe surname was present in Portland during the years Jane would have grown up there. But the relationships between these individuals were not clear.
Census Records
I searched 1840 census records for anyone named Doe who may have had a female child born about 1813. My list included a few people, but none fit exactly right.
Investigating Possible Parents
One possible couple was Ebenezer Doe and Sarah Codman.
They married in Portland on 1 January 1811.
At first glance, this seemed promising. The marriage date is close to Jane’s estimated birth year.
But additional research showed:
- Sarah died in 1820
- Ebenezer died in 1823
More importantly, there is no evidence they had children.
Without children connected to them in other records, they cannot currently be considered Jane’s parents.
Following Naming Clues
Sometimes clues appear in later generations.
Jane Doe’s daughter, Mary Smith, named one of her sons:
Royal Jones
That unusual given name immediately caught my attention.
It raised the possibility of a connection to Esther Royal, the wife of Thomas Doe who married in 1808.
Thomas and Esther had a son born in Portland in 1815.
Could this family connect to Jane?
At this stage, it was still only a possibility.
A Possible Sibling Appears in Connecticut
Another clue appeared in the 1850 census.
A man named Captain Thomas Doe was living in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Several details stood out: he was born in Maine about 1818 and a sea captain.
However, there were almost no records for him before 1850 other than references to him joining ships as a sailor.
Still, this raised an interesting possibility.
Could Captain Thomas Doe be Jane Doe’s brother?
An Interesting Marriage Connection
The next generation produced another clue.
George Smith, the son of George and Jane Smith, married Mary Doe in Greenwich, Connecticut, on 14 June 1871.
Mary was the daughter of Captain Thomas Doe.
If Jane Doe and Captain Thomas Doe were siblings, they would be first cousins. While that may sound unusual today, cousin marriages were not uncommon in the 1800s.
Even more interesting, another daughter of Captain Thomas Doe married Alfred Knight.
Later, George Smith and Mary Doe named one of their sons:
Alfred Knight Smith
That kind of naming pattern often reflects close family relationships.
What the Evidence Suggests
After searching through:
- census records
- vital records
- probate records
- land records
- newspapers
- city directories
there is still no direct evidence identifying Jane Doe’s parents.
However, the strongest theory is that Jane Doe and Captain Thomas Doe were siblings, both born in Maine before Thomas eventually settled in Greenwich, Connecticut.
The naming patterns and the later marriage between their children support that idea.
But without a document that directly states their relationship, it remains a well-supported hypothesis rather than proven fact.
Finally Why This Genealogy Brick Wall Still Has No Answer
This project is a good reminder that not every research problem ends with a clear solution. Sometimes the records simply do not exist. Other times, they haven’t been discovered yet.
In this case, we ended with a strong theory but no definitive proof. And that is part of the reality of genealogy research. Every piece of evidence moves the story forward, even when the final answer is still waiting to be found.
💡Genealogy Tip
It’s especially important to slow down and take good notes when the evidence doesn’t directly point to an answer. Staying organized can be key to connecting the dots and making progress in your research.
If you enjoy seeing how real research problems unfold, I share genealogy tips, strategies, and case studies like this with my email readers. You can join below and I’ll also send you my guide to the first two steps in the genealogy research process.
