I'm Writing the World's First Brick Wall Biography (Starting Tomorrow)
Testing a new method to break through genealogical brick walls
I have a confession: I’ve been doing genealogy for 15+ years for my Polish-Ukrainian ancestors, and I still hit brick walls constantly.
You know the moment. You’re tracing your family tree, births and marriages and migrations falling into place, and then the records just stop. You have a name. Maybe a date. Then nothing. Your ancestor vanishes.
We call these brick walls. And for as long as genealogy has existed, there have been only two responses: keep searching (and hoping a new record magically appears), or give up and accept the silence.
I’m attempting a third option. And I’m doing it publicly, starting with my great-great-grandmother.
What is a Brick Wall Biography?
A Brick Wall Biography (BWB) is a novella-length book about someone you can barely find.
Instead of stopping when records disappear, you write the most plausible life story you can construct using everything you DO know, plus deep research about the world they lived in.
Here’s the key: the act of writing a continuous, logical narrative forces contradictions to surface. When you try to connect Known Fact A to Known Fact B with a plausible story, the places where the narrative breaks (where it refuses to flow logically) tell you exactly what kind of record you need to look for next.
Brick Wall Biographies are not historical fiction. It’s a hypothesis in story form.
Every claim gets labeled as documented fact, reasonable inference, or educated speculation. The goal isn’t entertainment, although they can be. The goal is generating specific new research leads by making yourself account for every gap.
I’ve developed a methodology for this. (I’m not revealing the full process yet. That’s the secret sauce.) But I will tell you this: it combines genealogical research, historical context, and narrative pressure in a way I haven’t seen anyone else attempt.
And I’m testing it now.
Meet Marena Borowski
My proof-of-concept subject is Marena Borowski, my great-great-grandmother.
What I know:
Born July 2, 1870 in Rydoduby, Galicia (now Ukraine)
Married Nicholas Borowski (also from Rydoduby)
Appeared in Manitoba, Canada by 1901
Raised a family, stayed Ukrainian Catholic
Died in Canada in 1942
What I don’t know:
Her parents (Joannis Dereniuk and Maria Prokopowycz) are names only. No records.
Her four grandparents are complete ghosts.
When/how/why did she immigrate? No ship manifest found.
When/where did she marry? The church record should exist. It doesn’t.
What happened between 1870 birth and 1901 Manitoba census?
Why Marena (And Not the Others)
I considered several brick wall ancestors:
Joannis Dereniuk (her father): Too much of a brick wall. Almost no facts. Would be 95% speculation. A BWB would still bring life to this name, but it’s not enough.
Nicholas Borowski (her husband): Actually well-documented through his father’s records. Not mysterious enough.
Tekla Bazarska: Good candidate, but she’s well-documented (birth 1897, immigration 1924, death 1966). Her parents are the mystery, not her.
Ludovici Borowski: Never left Galicia. Single-world story. A BWB could certainly help flesh out details of her life but there is no dramatic tension.
Marena is the sweet spot. Enough known facts to build from. Enough mystery to investigate. And she lived in TWO worlds (Galicia and Canada).
That two-world arc creates natural transition points where brick walls appear. More brick walls mean more opportunities for the methodology to work.
What This Will Produce
If the methodology works, the final Brick Wall Biography will deliver:
A complete, readable narrative of Marena’s life (every claim transparently labeled as fact/inference/speculation)
Deep historical context about what life was actually like for a Greek Catholic peasant girl in 1870s Galicia, and a Ukrainian immigrant woman in pioneer Manitoba
Specific new research leads generated by narrative friction points (the places where the story breaks and reveals gaps in logic)
A research ledger documenting every stress point found, every new question generated, and a clear next-steps plan for future researchers
Proof of concept that this methodology works. (Or doesn’t. Either way, we’ll learn something.)
This isn’t just a family history project. It’s testing whether writing a rigorous biographical narrative can actually function as a research tool.
What Happens Next
Tomorrow morning, I start.
I’ll be documenting the process here. Not every detail of the methodology (not yet), but the discoveries, the dead ends, the moments where the narrative breaks and reveals something I missed.
If you’ve ever hit a brick wall in your own genealogy research, you know the frustration. That feeling of having a name without a story. A date without context. An ancestor who existed but left almost no trace.
I’m attempting to give Marena Borowski her story back.
Even if parts remain incomplete. Even if some must be labeled “plausible inference” rather than proven fact.
Silence isn’t the only option here.
The first Brick Wall Biography starts now.
If you’ve hit a genealogical dead end and want to see what a Brick Wall Biography could do for your ancestor, learn more about the service here.