Thanks guys. This is really the stuff I enjoy doing, and I realize that I will strike out sometimes (ok, a lot). The cool part is that sometimes, just when you think you struck out, suddenly everything falls into place.
To Brendan's question: Naturally, I cannot speak for how PSA does it, but I have learned to use a combination of methodologies, mostly through trial and error. Length, weight, ordering records, etc. are a good start. Then there are caliper measurements, knob variations, and some other tricks I have developed to put together a series of clues to help out. Finally, if you can get a good photo, that is a free cookie. But I do not seem to have great luck with that.
Honestly, most of it is simply contacting public libraries and historical societies and asking lots of questions. You never know what you will dig up. I once hit the jackpot crawling through the University of South Carolina library archives for an obscure photo that wasn't even related to baseball.
I think it was extra-amazing luck for Virgil, because what are the odds that I would find his descendant, she would know who I was talking about, AND she happened to be the family historian who kept a ton of documentation on him?
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