I found this yesterday on FindMyPast – How a simple search for an ancestor can unlock way more than you expect – FindMyPast September 5, 2019: https://www.findmypast.com/blog/community/silversmith-ancestor.
It’s an interesting story so I am only going to quote a portion of the first part.
Genealogist, Jen Baldwin, shares one of her favorite family discoveries, packed with mystery and crime.
It seems my family history is worth its weight in…silver. My third great-grandfather, John Horatio Lawrence, had always sparked my interest. I had read about him in written family histories that claimed he was born in Birmingham, England, the son of a middle-class silversmith. When I became interested in genealogy, I had a deep urge to discover more about this fabled character.
While the idea of tracing someone based solely on a location and an occupation seemed daunting, I knew that with the help of digitized newspapers and city directories, much could be accomplished.
–snip–
Ups Downs Family History 