I currently have 24,512 "Hints" for my family tree on Ancestry.com. Every so often, when I get bored with my research, I take a peek in there just to see what I can find. Sometimes there is some low-hanging fruit that I can pick and add to my tree without much difficulty, but today I thought I would research whatever hint was at the top, or, my newest hint.
The hint was for Finis Marion Estep, my 3rd great grandfather. This is some type of folder which contained the marriage application for his daughter, Cynthia "Rennie" Estep who married Isaac Rymel in 1898. I have the marriage license application. So I cleared this from my list. 1 down, 24,511 to go!
The next couple of hints were things I already had, like Cynthia's obituary and her Find-A-Grave listing. I never use Find-A-Grave information as anything other than hints. I know a lot of people work really hard to collect the information and post it for all of us to see, but I have found a lot of mistakes.
Once I got through Cynthia, the next thing I found was an obituary for William H. Estep of Mason County, Illinois. This is my 4th great uncle.
It was a bit blurry on Newspapers.com, but I definitely learned some new things here, like the name of his first wife and the surnames of the men his daughters married.
I think I will make a plan to search these hints, adding a new one to my tree each week.