Hope for some Massachusetts ancestors. They were fervid record keepers and published town books from earliest times to 1850, then distributed all the books into all the libraries. I’ve actually xeroxed original wills out of the 1600s from town halls that are reproduced in the books.
Rhode Island was a pain in the butt. They published a lot, then just started adding supplementals that meant you had to look everywhere through lots of different books. Painful.
New York was the pits. They had minimal information in individual town halls so you had to be prepared to travel extensively and visit all the churches they might have attended while you were at it. New York takes most of my research time and even then I feel like I’m getting the minimal.
Oh, cemeteries. The records of burials is a big help there. When they aren’t digging up the graves to extend the church or put in a highway. It was explained to me that they dig until the earth changes color, then pile all the dirt into a new casket. One church in Kingston just put up the old gravestones and ignored what used to be under them.
I’m thinking about starting a project in my families creating Google earth files for all the cemetery information I’ve accumulated from the find a grave website. I did it for all the covered bridges in Ohio when I was a Covid shut in.
North Carolina had a statewide cemetery catalog project. I assisted in McDowell county with a couple of cemeteries.
I wish there was a standard way to write an obituary. I spend a lot of time mapping out family connections as I decipher obituaries. A well written obituary is a treasure trove of information that can be expanded with all the research tools we have today.
The absolute worst source of information is the Catholic Church. They can confirm some information you have but won’t give you access to their records to do research. You have to know what they have to request the information, so I don’t play the Catch 22 game. Funny thing, all this genealogy started with the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic Church is a Johnie come lately to the party.
I’ve been told, if you want to go to Europe to do research, you should go to one of the Latter Day Saints Centers - might save you a trip. I’ve found and photocopied a lot of information at my local LDS center. Very helpful people there.