Today I spent a great amount of time working on a family tree. There were several dead-ends. 
When I get to a dead-end (when I can’t seem to find the parents of an individual) I expand my focus. The way to break through and continue building your tree involves branching out. Go back to the information you have. Return to the census images and look at the names. Look for brothers, sister, neighbors etc. Often times, if you begin researching the line through another relative, you can break through. When I could not find the parent of a direct ancestor I looked for the parent of my ancestor’s sibling. The person I was researching today was listed in one census as the “brother-in-law” as the relation to the head of the household. This clearly gave me the name of my individual’s sister and her age/birth information. I added her to the tree and then began looking for her parents….Bingo!
For those interested in genetic genealogy, DNA genealogy, and those interested in discovering family origins resulting from adoption or unknown parentage. You can become a DNA Detective.