You know the moment. You type a name into a search bar, brace yourself, and get… nothing. No results. And the temptation, especially for colonial-era research, is to assume the record doesn’t exist, if ever or not anymore. That your ancestor was one of history’s invisible people, leaving no paper trail, no proof, no story.   Monument to Sgt. William Jasper. Savannah, GA. Image by author. Sometimes, that assumption is right. Fire, flood, war, and simple neglect have destroyed