Brick Walls

You can't go through them, can't get past them and can't jump over them. In genealogy every one runs into at least some, sometimes more than some. The ancestor who slipped past all know record keeping. Managed to get born during a census year, like the 1890, which was lost to history by fire... then moved to the next location after the census taker arrived. Or the great great great grandmother who will forever be an "orphan" because her maiden name is never recorded.  It's these challenges that will either make you give up or get even more determined. I have LOTS of unanswered questions in my own research, but a few stand out and have achieved gold plated brick wall status. Grancer Kindal Bazzell. He's the direct ancestor who was born in North Carolina in 1800, came "west" to Calloway county, KY with his kin, but managed to completely evade any records where it is recorded, or even hinted at who are his actual parents. So that line of Bazzell research has gone very sideways ( lots of cousins, second and ten times removed, all over the country) but not any farther back than Kindal ( as he was known). Andrew Johnson McKinney. He appears in the 1850 and 1860 census of Franklin county, AL, with his wife and family. He maintains that he was born in Missouri, which doesn't quite fit the other facts I have for him. I keep getting the nagging feeling that he isn't who I think he is. Drucilla White - I am named for her. She was my maternal grandmother's grandmother, born in 1840 in KY, died in Hardin county as Drucilla Stout. She was also married to a Sanders. I can't find her ( yet) in any census that will tell me who her parents were. I am getting closer on this one, though. I have found another family tree by someone who is naming her parents. This brick wall may fall before all the rest! On my father's side- his mother's grandparents Michael and Mary O'Leary came from Ireland during the time when so many were leaving Ireland. With common Irish names and no pointers to where they actually came from in Ireland. This can be one of the most stubborn brick walls of all, as most Irish researchers can tell you, the records are hard to find, aren't well indexed and many were destroyed.  On my father's side again. His maternal gr grandmother, Sarah McGee ( from Ireland)  married a Thomas Marsh. I know he came from Leeds, England, was born about 1835. That's as far as get.  On my father's side again... There are those unlabeled photographs of those beautiful people in their formal family portrait... who I have no idea who they are. I've been hoping to find anything that might show Isabella Francis Marsh ( daughter of the Sarah and Thomas above). She was my father's grandmother, but there are no labeled photos of her at all, anywhere. If it was easy, I guess it wouldn't keep me in the hunt would it?