Hitting That Brick Wall!

Have you hit a brick wall in your research? I am sure all of us have a brick wall on a surname at some point or another in our research. I have had several. What do you do about it? How have you broken down that brick wall?

I have had a brick wall on my SUTHERLAND family and of course I am at a brick wall with my SMITH family. I had my Grandpa SUTHERLAND, my Great Grandpa SUTHERLAND and my GGGrandpa Sutherland but could not go any further. I thought it would be easy as my GGGrandpa's name was Lycurgus. Very unusally name I was thinking would be easy to find. It has taken me eight years to break that wall. How did I do it? Well, I posted on every SUTHERLAND genealogy site I could find. I emailed inquiries every SUTHERLAND researcher I could contact. I knew from census data that Lycurgus was born in Virginia and had an approximate birth year and finally one day a SUTHERLAND researcher contacted me with the information I was looking for but the information was not on the Internet it was in a family book someone way back when had created. Now I am going about proving the linkage.

Tell us about your brick walls!! Maybe someone on here would be able to help.

My brick wall right now is the SMITH family. I have my GGGGGrandpa Charles Franklin Smith and my GGGGrandpa John Franklin Smith I have traced to Pennsylvannia but loose them there. Can anyone help?