Research Roadblock

​I write historical fiction that takes place in Ireland.  I have been complimented by friends that are Irish and some who recently emigrated from Ireland for the accuracy in the details of Irish life.  I have visited Ireland only once in 2008.  My detail comes almost exclusively from research.  I love to research, I have since high school.
When working on a manuscript my research methods have evolved over the years.  Initially I spent hours and hours researching before writing a single word.  I found that using this method I would have to review again and again my research findings because I would forget details I wanted to include in the manuscript.  I decided my research method was both too time consuming and inefficient.  I changed my pre-writing research to reading for broad background.
That method works well for the broad paint strokes but doesn’t work at all for the detail.  About mid-way through the manuscript for Out of Darkness I accidently found another method of researching – call it ‘just-in-time’ research.  One morning I was writing at my local coffee shop, Beans n Cream and I needed to know a detail about the Dingle Peninsula.   I googled a question and found the exact answer I needed.  I had found a new way to research and I used the – look it up when you need it – method to complete the manuscript.  I became adept at toggling back and forth between Google chrome and my document.
 That’s when everything goes well.  Things don’t always go well.  This weekend I was writing and needed to know some details about graduate school at the University College Cork.  I had researched the topic previously but in my ‘just-in-time’ search I couldn’t find the same information I had found previously.  Panic set in.  Either I had forgotten or misunderstood what I read earlier.  I have that problem with recipes.  I like to look up recipes on my Smartphone.  I’ll make a choice and then when I want to cook the dish I can’t find exactly the same recipe I had selected.  That’s damn frustrating.
 I stopped writing and spent more than an hour trying different Google searches to find the original information I recalled.  It didn’t work.  Nothing worked.   I researched myself into a corner and couldn’t get out.  Exasperated, I saved my document and quit writing for the day.
I have run smack dab into a research roadblock.  You can either stay stuck in front of the roadblock or go over, under, around or through it.  I don’t know which it will be for me yet.  Right now, I’m just waiting.
Have you ever had a research roadblock?