Brick walls. Every genealogist runs into one sooner or later. The dead-end of a trail of evidence with no obvious solution in sight. When this happens one has several choices. 1. Let the question sit a while. When you come back to it later, new information may have become available. 2. Keep battering at the wall. This is not usually productive, but if one does take the time to review all of the original documents, sometimes a new detail stands out. 3. Consider whether DNA

Bill Morris (1895-1975) circa 1910-1912 with an unidentified companion (left). As I was growing up, I frequently heard about my great-grandfather William "Bill" Morris's days as a vaudeville stagehand in Muskegon, Michigan. The story never included many details; nonetheless, Grandma liked to show us the photograph of her father dressed up as a western cowboy (pictured on the right), posed with an unidentified companion (pictured on the left), and refer to his "vaudeville days