"You have to look at, like, 200 of the things. And then, suddenly, you read the 201st, and you say 'Oh! So that's what's going on!' And then you have to go back and check the first 200 again."
This quote, over lunch, from Mr. 3D, my frère d'une autre mère here in Blerg City (yes I'm back).
Archive-based historians, what kinds of records are we talking about?