Following a Wrong Course

Ancestry.com continues to provide more and more databases and several more indexes. I recently thought I was on the path to find a long lost cousin who disappeared about 1912. The NY state death index listed a Peter F. Goodwin that died in a state institution on Long Island based on the village. I was able to get the 1914 death record for him only to learn that it was a completely different fellow. The names of this gentleman’s parents were found to match his birth record in the index at FamilySearch.org 

As with scientific experiments, family history researchers will often have their hypothesis and working theories challenged and conclusively proved incorrect. Persevere nonetheless and never give up.