Brick Walls - We All Have Them

We all love to do our genealogy research. It's interesting. We learn a lot about other things in the process. All of a sudden we come to a grinding halt on at least one person we are researching and want to bang our heads against the "brick wall." Ouch. How do we get past that and why would we want too?

YouTube has some interesting videos to watch. Let me share one in particular with you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33NcRbkm-eQ
"10 Top Tips for How to Bust Through Your Genealogy Brick Wall" from RootsTech2013 with Dave Obee through Genealogy Gems Podcast.
He takes a real case from a real person and shares some wonderful advice with her. Check it out and see if any of his tips help you. I've tried them all over a period of time with some of my "easier brick walls."
1 Create a timeline - every piece of concrete information that you have about the person.
2 Understand the geography - people moved around.
3 Find every possible record
4 Understand how records were created - sometimes people were missed on a census even though they were there.
5 Newspapers - read every local story
6 Tap into local knowledge - they know more about local sources and how to use them.
7 Go there, if you can, in person
8 Look for negative proof - this is a biggie if you are researching a common surname. Basically finding the right information through eliminating others.
9 Collaborate with other researchers - make sure to document information and ask questions about sources. Don't just copy what they have.
10 "oops, I think I missed one", but how about - use an expert for ideas and on-line resources.

The information given was related to some Canadian and American resources, but I think it is useful for any country.

If you've read any of my previous posts you already know I think timelines are very important and I've shared a few of them. At the moment I am researching how I can create them more effectively i.e. would an excel spreadsheet be better than a word document.
I used #6 - tap into local information - on a recent trip to Scotland and as a result I have a reliable source of information to visit on my next jaunt over "the puddle." The site has some on-line information available but most of their sources have to be seen in person and copied there.
#9 - collaborate with other researchers - happens to me often. e.g. I had some information about a distant cousin of my spouse, on one of my trees on Ancestry. A direct descendant saw what I had and contacted me to tell me more about that person, which helped me fix a mistake of my own making. She shared information about the spouse, other family and what one of her main original sources is.