Sometimes pulling a single thread can unravel a multitude of genealogical problems. I had the fortune of finding such a thread in my own research recently. By finding a record of a family member, I was able to answer nagging questions I have had for some time about mystery persons in census returns, add needed strength to the identification of my 4th great grandmother, and connect with a new line of cousins from St Croix. To tell the story, I’ll begin with each of the questions I had uncovered and then show how, by researching non-family members in censuses over an 80 year period and 3 generations led to adding branches I didn’t know existed in my own tree.